Time Spell
by Sailor-Scout-of-Darkness
Summary: COMPLETE! In an AU, Serena, Darien, and the scouts have a bad falling out.
1. The Beginning

Chapter 1—The Beginning

Serena ran through the park. She could hear the Scouts and Tuxedo Mask screaming for her help. It wasn't as if she had intentionally got thrown across the park. The piece of crap monster was the one who threw her. An entire mile—how the heck did one tiny monster through her an entire mile?!

_Ow! My back hurts! _Serena moaned, finally finding her way to where the battle was still raging.

"Serena! Quit moping around and finish off the battle!" Sailor Mars screamed, furious that it took her that long to get back to the battle. Serena gave Mars a glare, then yelled:

"Moon…Cosmic…Power!" Within seconds, Serena was Sailor Moon. Trying to get her bearings about her—and to stop focusing on her aching back—Sailor Moon didn't attack the monster right away.

"Are you stupid or something? Kill her, before she kills someone else!" Sailor Jupiter was pissed and everyone could see it. Taking a deep breath, Sailor Moon ignored all of them, turning her entire focus onto the monster.

"Moon…healing…escalation!" With the little song and dance, Sailor Moon defeated the monster. She was so tired of being the one that they always looked to. She wanted to be a normal girl again, but no one would let her.

"What took you so long to get here?" Ami breathed, having already transformed back. Sailor Moon ignored the question.

"Is everyone alright?" She asked. She was too tired for all of this drama.

"That's a stupid question," muttered Mina.

Without bothering to even give them the satisfaction of a retort, Sailor Moon changed back into Serena. She gave them all one final glance, and she walked away, trying not to cry and run.

"Do you think we were too hard on her?" Ami questioned.

"She'll be fine Ami." Darien was always the calm one when it came to matters of Serena. A natural born doctor, Darien was already helping the people lying on the grass. It would be hours before they calmed down enough for any of them to be able to talk to Serena, and when they were finally ready, she decided that she was going to ignore them.

oOo

She had just turned on her stereo and was listening to the latest song from the United States. The song seemed to inspire her to write one of her own. She had always done this in the past—with her old friends. The people she called "friends" right now, seemed like they were anything but. She had spent thirteen years of her life in Los Angeles, California, her birthplace. Her dad had got an offer for a better job, but he had to move to Tokyo to get it. Without another thought for his family, they were packed and ready to move in less than a month. Serena was supposed to be the main singer and the writer of all their songs. With the move, Serena had to leave her band and all of her friends.

"Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming,

Cannot cease for the fear of silent nights.

Oh how I long for the deep sleep dreaming

The goddess of imaginary light."

Angrily, Serena wiped away the tears that had started to fall down her cheeks. What was wrong with her? Could she never just keep one friend? Was she forever going to have to be giving up friends and love in the name of duty?

"Serena, dinner's ready." Mrs. Tsukino knocked softly on the door to Serena's room.

"I'm not really hungry, Mom."

"Sweetie, I'm coming in." Without waiting for Serena to give her leave, Mrs. Tsukino walked in. Immediately, she took in Serena's red cheeks and ran over to hug her. "What's wrong, Serena?" Her kind tone only caused Serena to cry harder.

"You're remembering the past aren't you, Sweetie?" She didn't really need to ask. She could see the pictures layering the bed. It was the Serena of a happier time. In each picture, she was either smiling or laughing. Lately, she couldn't find the willpower to do either of them. She was always crying herself to sleep, thinking of happier times. Three years ago, she never would have thought that her life would so drastically change. She had wanted everything to always be the same.

"Your father and I have been talking, Serena."

_Oh no! How can one day possibly be going this badly?_

"We believe that you need a vacation."

"What are you talking about?" Serena asked pulling away from the warm embrace to look into her mother's eyes. She wiped her nose, sniffling a little.

"For the past couple of weeks, you have been getting unexplained bruises all over your body; you have been coming home tired and stressed. We can hear you cry yourself to sleep every night! I called my sister and asked if she would be willing to take you for a weekend. She said that she would be delighted to. Would you terribly mind if you went there for a little while, just to relax and recuperate?"

"Just for a weekend?"

"Well…from now until Sunday."

"Mom, it's only Tuesday!"

"Be happy. Your aunt wanted you to come last week. Will you please go, Serena? I so hate to see you hurting."

Serena thought about her mom's request for the fraction of a second, before hastily saying, "yes, please."

"Then get packed now, Sweetie. Your father will drive you to the station." With a smile, her mom pat her on the back, recognizing the wince as she did so. Within ten minutes, Serena had packed enough things for the rest of the week, grateful that she had done all of her laundry yesterday. She grabbed her science and history binders, hopefully to do a little studying on the five and a half hour train ride from Tokyo to Hakata. Should she be doing this?

Serena reached for her door knob, stopping short just before she reached it. She threw her suitcase onto the ground and started rummaging through it trying to find her crystal. She didn't want to be reminded of Sailor Moon or any of the scouts while she was in Hakata. She rubbed her thumb across the crystal. She put it on top of the clothes strewn about the suitcase. Her hands covered her ears as she rocked back and forth weeping, forever looking at the crystal. She wanted to throw it across the room. She wanted to be able to go back to being the normal happy go lucky girl she always had been. She didn't want to be Sailor Moon anymore. Serena looked up at the ceiling, searching as if it could give her the answers that she needed to hear, give her the encouragement that she wasn't getting from her friends and boyfriend.

She grabbed the crystal, ready to hurl it across the room, ready to watch it break into millions of pieces. She raised her arm…but in the end, she couldn't do it. No matter how much it ruined her life, it was still the only way that she connected with any of her friends. She shook her head. Keeping the crystal out of her suitcase, she refolded the clothes then zippered the case shut. She gently put the crystal on her nightstand, and walked out of her room and down the stairs, ever ready to leave for vacation.

oOo

Darien climbed the trellis up to Serena's bedroom. She hadn't answered any of his calls, and he was starting to get worried about her. For a couple weeks, she hadn't been acting normally. She always looked tired, complete with the dark circles under her eyes; she was virtually ignoring him and the others; and today, not for the first time, she wasn't willing to fight. He had to get down to the bottom of it.

As quietly as possible, he opened her window. He looked around first, just in case she was dressing or hadn't seen him. The room was dark and incredibly neat, for someone like Serena. Serena was always messing up, if her room was neat, it was normally because her mom had done it for her. He climbed through the window, landing on the bed. It was a surprise for him. Normally her bed was on the other side of the room. He hoped he hadn't hurt her when he landed on the bed. His hand groped up the blankets, only to find that they were perfectly smooth. A very confused Darien walked over to the door to turn on the light. It was almost midnight, and Serena wasn't in her room. Could he have missed her on his way to her house?

Thinking about the question, he noticed pictures all over the pillow of her bed. They were her when she was younger. Not one of them had any of the sailor scouts in them. They were all people he had never seen before. Darien picked up a unique one. It had Serena in the middle playing a guitar, a red head playing the drums, and a brunette playing the bass. On the back it said:

"The Girls' Club last performance. 3/14/XX LA, Cali."

Serena had never gone to the United States! He knew for a fact that the girl in this picture, playing the guitar, was his girlfriend. She had the same length blond hair and the same meatballs on top. What was going on Serena? Darien got a sudden idea. He went to her closet, just to see if her parents had taken her somew—what the heck? Not only was her suitcase missing, but so where most of the clothes in the closet. Darien wiped his face with his hand. Why hadn't she called him? Where in the world could she be going?

"This is absolutely ridiculous!" He exclaimed. "Why did she just leave without contacting anybody? That is so reckless Serena." He spoke as if she was standing in the room with him. It didn't matter that she wasn't as long as she had the silver crystal she could hear his innermost thoughts, whether they were happy or ready to kill her. He rolled his eyes and turned off the light, noticing there was a glint coming from her night stand. He squinted his eyes. He still couldn't tell what it was. He was about to turn the light back on, but he heard a car door slam.

"When is Serena coming back, Mom?" Darien heard Sammy ask through the open window.

"I hope never. Before we moved here, Serena was always so happy. Now, with those so-called "friends" of hers and that boyfriend, her smiles haven't reached her eyes for the past year. She gets home later and later, and with more bruises and hurts than any girl—or child for that matter—should ever have in their lifetime." Mrs. Tsukino answered.

"Then why did you just send her away for the weekend? Why not just tell her that she was going to be staying with Aunt Michelle from now on?"

"Because then it would seem like we were kicking her out of our house, and I would rather die right now, that to let Serena believe that she wasn't loved."

Without thinking or hearing the rest of the conversation, Darien climbed out of the window, as soon as he heard the front door open. He climbed down the trellis. His communicator started to buzz.

"Darien, we need you and Serena here, right now!" Sailor Mercury shouted at him. Blindly he transformed into Tuxedo Mask and appeared at the attack sight without much time passing. Just as he got there, the monster disappeared, but not before everyone got a good look at it. It was the image of a beautiful woman with grey hair and unholy white eyes. Her lids and under eyes were dark blue, almost black in the pale of her face. She was tall, wearing no shoes. While wearing the white dress with billowing sleeves, she looked as if she was an angel—an angel with devilish qualities, for she also held a sharp, double-edged sword, able to slice through a person in a matter of seconds. In the glance that Darien got of her, her inch long blood red nails were already covered in the blood of the scouts.

"Is everyone alright?" Darien questioned.

"Where the heck is Serena?" Mina asked, her deep blue eyes showing the extent of her anger.

"I don't know," responded Darien, quietly.

"When I get my hands on her…I'll—I'll—I' ll kill her."


	2. The Interview

I do not own sailor moon, leona lewis' "a moment like this. the school was a figment of my imagination.

* * *

Chapter 2—The Interview

Life was perfect. The sun was shining strong. The sand was warm between her toes. There were no bugs. The water near her aunt's house played a melody so sweet, it lulled Serena to sleep.

Life inside her head was anything but calm though. There were dreams being played over and over again. And in each dream, Serena died in a new way, but she got to watch the reactions of her friends as she died. Each reaction was always the same—the scouts looked sad, but they wouldn't go to her funeral, and Darien got drunk and hooked up with a new girl. There was always a monster in it, too, a white haired, white eyed, white dressed, beautiful woman that continually sliced through Serena with her sword and red fingernails.

"Wake…up…Princess…" The monster spoke. "Your…friends…are …in…danger…You…have…to…help…them…"

"What are you doing to them?" Serena asked the woman.

"I…am…not…doing…anything…"

"Then why are they in trouble?"

"It…is…you…" With the final words, the woman disappeared, and Serena died. The dream continued, not allowing its victim to awaken.

"Serena! Wake up!"With a jerk, Serena sat straight up. Covered in a cold sweat she looked at her aunt. "Serena, you were having a nightmare."

"I'm sorry, Aunt Michelle."

"Why don't you go take a stroll on the board walk? It always calms me whenever I do. Take your phone in case I need to call you." Michelle helped Serena up off the towel and pushed her in the right direction.

Serena hadn't really wanted to be alone in the past couple of days. She had tried to call Darien, but normally hung up before the phone ever rang more than once. She wasn't brave enough to call his cell phone, just in case he might see her number and pick it up. She tried calling him again, but in the end she hung up before he could answer. She turned her mind to more important matters, like figuring out why the monster looked so familiar. She was sure that she had met the woman before.

Serena walked into a coffee shop to get a smoothie. She had walked by a couple of people with a strawberry one. Her entire mouth started to water. Unknowingly she started to sing Kelly Clarkson's song, Because of You. She didn't realize how loud she was singing it though, until she got a rather rude glance from an old and cranky woman. Immediately she stopped.

"No! Don't stop, you have a beautiful voice, miss." When Serena glanced at the man, she was a little startled.

_Why the heck was this guy listening to me sing? _ She thought.

"I'm a talent scout from a school in Nagasaki. Attendance is down this year, so I was sent out to various cities, trying to recruit. So far, you have one of the most beautiful voices I've heard. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind coming to audition." Serena continued to stare at the blond haired foreigner. Finally he tilted his head, bringing her back to the present.

"Um…sure…I guess."

"Well, here is my business card, I wrote the address on the back. Come there tomorrow at noon and we'll get you in." Serena blindly took the business card and watched as the odd man went out of the coffee shop before looking at it.

"Nagasaki International Boarding School for the Arts…" she breathed. Surely she wasn't this good. _Should I go?_

oOo

"Hey, Mom, it's Serena."Serena couldn't wait to tell her family about the audition. After she had gotten home from the coffee shop, she had thought about the school the man said he was from. It was the best school in Japan for any arts—which were many. It was also the hardest school to get into and the hardest to _not_ fail out of. She'd always had decent grades, but with this school you had to get a 3.5 or fail out. _What the heck am I thinking? There is no way I can do this._

"Serena, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just really excited about something, and I couldn't wait to tell you!" Serena held her breath for more effect. "I got talent scouted."

"Huh?" _Well, that blew the entire effect._

"I got talent scouted, Mom. It's when someone looking for talent happens upon you, and you get accepted into a certain league or school." _I shouldn't have to explain this._

"Who got talent scouted?"

"Me, Mom, I got talent scouted."

"For which school?"

"Nagasaki International Boarding School for the Arts." Serena held her breath waiting for her mom to respond.

"Serena, stop messing around. You are raising a huge bill for your aunt," her mom scolded.

"Mom! I'm not joking! The talent scout's name is Brandon St. Clair; he invited me in for an audition tomorrow. I swear to you, I'm telling the truth." Silence reigned on the other end.

"OH MY GOODNESS! ARE YOU SERIOUS? You got accepted into the best school in Japan?" Serena held the phone away from her ear as her mother continued to scream. "How did he find you?"

"I was singing in a coffee shop on the boardwalk. He heard me and came up to talk to me."

"My daughter's going to Nagasaki International!" Her mom sniffed. "You _better_ go to that audition tomorrow."

"I am, Mom, since I called you kind of late though, I better go to bed, so I can sing tomorrow."

"Serena, before you leave, may I ask you why you would want to go to Nagasaki International?"

"It's complicated."

"Explain it to me."

"For a while now, I've been feeling left out of something with my friends. It's like I've become nothing but a nuisance to them and Darien too. They're always upset with me. With how mean they're being to me I figured that it would be better if I would just leave and…I don't know." She started to cry. "I think it's time that I move on with my life. Maybe friendships are only supposed to last for so long, and mine has long since worn out its welcome."

"Oh Serena, I had no idea. I'm so sorry, sweetie. If I had known, I would have sent you on vacation a long time ago. I think you are making the right decision though. I want you to be happy. I love you, sweetie."

"I love you, too, Mom. Thank you." Serena hung up the phone. _Am I making the right decision? What if I misread something?_

oOo

Serena got up early tomorrow and went to the address on the back of the business card. It looked like an old rundown warehouse, but inside it was positively magnificent. It was built for perfect sounds. It was like something from Phantom of the Opera. She had decided to wear the most comfortable outfit she had packed. It was shorts and a tee shirt. As she walked into the building though, she immediately wished that she had worn something else, for everyone else was wearing suits or dresses. _I really don't belong here. _

"Serena, I'm so glad you made it." Brandon St. Clair came rushing over to meet her, causing everyone in the room to give her an evil glare. "I told the others about you, and they really want to hear you sing."

"But the others were here first…"Serena tried.

"I didn't tell you yesterday, but I am the best talent scout Nagasaki International has. Because of that, I only get the best of the best. Because I chose you, they want to hear you." Without another word to the wide-eyed Serena, St. Clair pulled her into the auditorium. It was empty except for four chairs in the front. St. Clair pushed her onto the stage, then took his seat in the middle of everyone.

"Serena, what song are you going to be singing for us?"

Serena was so petrified she couldn't answer them.

"Serena?"

"Oh um…a—" Serena couldn't get the words out. What was she thinking? "—A Moment Like This by Leona Lewis."

"Wonderful." The judges looked happy causing Serena to relax a little bit. Taking a deep breath, she started to sing the words.

"What if I told you, it was all meant to be…"

Halfway through the song, she glanced at the judges and almost lost her nerve. She remembered that she was going to start a new life, looked them in the eyes and sang the last minute of her song with all her soul.

"…I can't believe it's happening to me. Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this."

The judges gave her a sounding ovation. She took a deep, shaking breath.

"Serena…welcome to Nagasaki International Boarding School for the Arts." She screamed and ran up to hug the judges.

"Congratulations. Here's your school packet." They handed her a think manila envelope. "We hope to see you in two weeks."

Serena ran out of the auditorium crying and screaming. As soon as she got outside, she called her mom.

"Mom, it's me." She gasped.

"Serena, you better be at that audition."

"I already finished it. They ushered me in first. I sang, they gave me a standing ovation, and they gave me a school packet. I got accepted into Nagasaki International!" Serena screamed again. The sound was conquered out by her mom's own scream. "Do you mind if I come home now?"

"Of course not! Do you want me to tell Darien and your friends?"

Serena had forgotten all about them. She stopped dead in her tracks, thinking about how she was going to tell them she was leaving. "No, Mom, I'll tell them. I'll be home later on tonight."


	3. The Confrontation

Chapter Three—The Confrontation

Serena walked to get off the train. It was hard though because her family was waiting right there. Her mom was crying, but through the tears, she was smiling.

"Oh, Serena, I'm so proud of you!" When they hugged, Serena felt as if the entire world went back into place. Her mom was right—a vacation can truly change the entire view point of your life.

"Meatball brains," said Sammy, "how the heck did _you_ get into Nagasaki International?"

"Shut up, Sammy." Serena went from her mom to her dad. When she hugged him, she started to cry. "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you, too, pumpkin." Together they all walked out of the train station. ON the ride home, Serena was oddly quiet. Her parents knew that it was because she was dreading talking to her friends about everything that happened. "Serena, do you want to be dropped off somewhere?"

"Nah, I'm okay."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I can talk to them tomorrow."

Finally, they reached the house. Everything was the same. Nothing ever changed. Serena's heart broke as she lugged her suitcase back to her room. For a while she just stood in the door way to her room. She could tell that someone had been in it. She wasn't sure when or even how long, but somehow she knew it. A tear rolled down her cheek, a happy one considering that she wouldn't have to be here anymore. It was one of the last nights that she would be spending in this room. One of the last nights where she would have to worry about Darien or one of the scouts dropping in uninvited to see her.

Thankfully, Luna was nowhere to be found. For a month or so, she had been staying at Lida's house. Not that it mattered, Luna hated her too. She can still remember the last words they said to each other:

=FLASHBACK=

"Serena," the black cat said, in her annoying mother-knows-best voice, "you can't always be doing only what you want. You have to think of others, too."

"Isn't that what I'm doing? I was sound asleep in my bed, Luna. I fell down the flight of stairs in my house. I twisted my ankle running over here, to save their sorry butts from dying, and in the end, instead of a congratulations, I get a talking to. I don't want to think of others anymore."

Stubbornly, Serena turned her back on the cat.

"Fine. Then stay here and rot for all we care." With those last words, Luna had jumped out the window. Apparently from the mean glance Lida had given her the next day, Luna had moved in with her.

=END FLASHBACK=

The last time of thinking about others over herself. Would she really be able to give up being Sailor Moon and helping the Scouts though? What if they really needed her? Would she be able to just come and help them? She was moving to Nagasaki; it would be virtually impossible for her to come back in time for a fight. Forget virtually—it would be totally impossible for her to get back.

"Serena, where the heck are you? We need your help." Serena's communicator started going out of control.

"I'm on my way," she whispered to the hostile voice on the other end. Quickly she transformed into Sailor Moon. She jumped out of her window and was running towards the battle. "Ami, where is the battle?"

"Tokyo Tower."

As quick as she could, Serena ran down the streets, looking for the battle. When she got there it was the same monster. The one that had been in her dreams. The one that haunted her. It was the same appearance, the same death gaze. Sailor Moon shook her head, grabbed her Moon wand and started to speak.

"I am Sailor Moon, the champion of good, and by the power of the moon, I will vanquish you. Moon…Princess…Halation!"

As the attack spiraled towards the white woman, she disappeared seconds before the attack hit her. _Crap! _ Sailor Moon almost fell to her knees before something stopped her. Her friends…where were they? She looked around the tower. It was desolate. Destruction was in every corner. Sailor Mars was in a tree off to her right, Sailor Mercury under a lamp post, Sailor Venus was flat on the ground, and Sailor Jupiter was in the concrete of the building. Tuxedo Mask was nowhere. Sailor Moon turned back into Serena and helped her friends. She brought each of them to one spot. Luna and Artemis were in the soil under Rai's tree. With one hand she made them all go back to being normal again, she sat with them until Tuxedo Mask arrived.

When Tuxedo Mask did arrive, Serena had already taken cover to hide from him. Quickly he rushed over to the girls. He didn't even stop. Instead he went straight for Ami. It nearly broke her heart, but she continued to watch the scene unfold.

"Are you guys okay?" He shouted. Finally Ami woke up.

"I'm fine…why am I over here?"

"What are you talking about? You were over here when I came here. Come on get up. We need to get you to your houses before your parents wake up." Darien helped wake up the other girls and they walked them to their houses. On their way out of the center, Artemis had to open his mouth.

"Wait, where did Sailor Moon go?"

"She never appeared," Rai replied

"She did. She moved all of you to the middle of the center."

"Why did she disappear then?"

"Maybe because you're always being jerks to her. Maybe she was scared you guys would put her down again. Maybe she left for none other reason than to not get yelled at again."

"Oh please, we're not that bad." Artemis was still trying to tell them to search for Serena.

"Thank you, Artemis." Serena whispered. At her slight whisper Artemis turned around and saw her. She didn't know how it had happened, but it had. Somehow Artemis had heard what she said. Just in case she wasn't imagining it, she put her fingers to her lips. When she did, his head turned back towards the front of the group. Heaving a sigh of relief, Serena covered her face with her hands.

"Do…you…see…how…you…are…killing…them?" The woman in white was back. Serena went straight as a board. The voice was behind her.

"I still don't get it. I'm not hurting them in any way."

"You…will…see…" With that the woman was gone. The others were already out of sight, allowing Serena to walk home alone. Carefully she climbed up the trellis and through her window, landing softly on her bed. Instead of going straight to bed though, she locked the window, just to prevent one of the scouts or Darien sneaking in.

oOo

Serena had woken up early the next morning. It didn't help that she couldn't sleep because of nightmares. She had remained in bed until her mom got up at least. After that there was nothing that was going to be holding that girl inside for the rest of the day. She greeted her mother and then walked out of the house. Because of how early it was, the sweater she was wearing wasn't helping her much. In order to get as much warmth as possible without going into a building, she walked through the park. She went straight to her and Darien's bench.

She didn't know how long she had sat there, thinking over how she was going to tell the others that she had got accepted into Nagasaki International. Suddenly it didn't matter though because _she_ got accepted into _Nagasaki International Boarding School for the Arts_. She did it without anyone else's help. Happy once again, she grabbed the pen and paper she brought with her everywhere. She decided that she was going to write a song for Darien then another for her friends. She figured that they would be mad at her initially, but they would find it best once she came back totally awesome. She wrote:

"…You know you're all that I live for,

You know I'd die just to hold you,

Stay with you,

Somehow I'll show you, that you are my night sky,

I've always been right behind you..."

Serena smiled again. She wanted Darien to know how much she loved him, wanted him to know that no matter what he would always be on her mind. Quickly she jotted down a few notes for the tune. She wanted this piece to be romantic, so she decided that it was going to be played solely on the piano. Once she finished his piece she started to work on her friends' piece. She didn't get down more than a couple words when she was rudely interrupted.

"What are _you_ doing here?" It was Rai. Serena lost her smile and turned around. Behind her, just staring, were the scouts and Darien. She quickly put the pen and paper into her purse. They started to walk towards her; suddenly scared, Serena stood up quickly. _Might as well get this over with_, she thought.

"I have something to tell you guys—" Before she could even get the full sentence out of her mouth, Rai slapped her.

"You left us!" She accused.

"It was for three days. I came right bac—" She got slapped again, this time by Lida.

"We could have died there Serena. If it wasn't for Tuxedo Mask, we would have."

"What are you talking about? I was right there helping—" Another slap from Mina.

"You left us to go on vacation without telling us, and then you "help" us as soon as you came back? You were never at Tokyo Tower, Serena. We're tired of your lies."

Serena stopped trying to explain herself. She looked in each of their eyes. Each one confirmed that what they said was true. She didn't look to Darien's though. If he believed like them, he had to say it. "Darien…do you agree with them?"

"Serena, I'm sorry, but you need to take responsibility and stop thinking of only your—" This time Serena interrupted him.

"I need to take responsibility?! You guys believe that I need to take responsibility?" Serena's voice raised an octave. "Who do you think you're talking too? I have always put your needs above my own, but I get ignored. I put my life on the line for each and every one of you! I'm not the greatest fighter—I know, but that is no reason for saying that I think only of myself. If anyone is tired, it's me. This is absolutely ridiculous!" Serena stopped to take a breath.

"How dare you?" Rai exclaimed.

"I dare because I'm tired of getting talked to because I'm only thinking of myself. I dare because I'm tired of getting pushed and beaten around. I'm tired of not having my friends trust in me enough to let me be able to leave to get some breathing room. I'm tired of coming back to my house to worry my mom because I have more bruises than anybody she's ever seen. I'm tired of missing homework and tests and quizzes because I have to fight your battles. I'm tired of not getting enough sleep because I have nightmares of monsters that have yet to be seen. I'm tired of not getting any respect from the people I hold in highest regard." Serena swallowed before continuing. "I'm tired of being Sailor Moon." She took a deep breath ready to continue in a quieter tone. "I think it's time that Sailor Moon retired indefinitely. I would rather not be Sailor Moon and have friends, than to be Sailor Moon and only have you guys."

Rai scoffed. "You really believe that?"

"You know I do."

"What about Neo-Queen Serenity?"

"Sailor Moon is dead to me, and Neo-Queen Serenity can die too, for all I care." With one last glance toward her previous friends, Serena ran all the way back to her house. She didn't realize she was crying though until she got home and collapsed after she had closed the door.


	4. Leaving

Chapter 4—Leaving

She had told them. She had let them know what she was thinking, and yet she never once told them that she was leaving for Nagasaki International at the end of next week. Next week…how on earth was she going to be in Tokyo until then and not see her friends? They weren't really her friends though. She didn't know what to call them, but friends was not the right thing. Friends wouldn't do something like this.

"Serena, are you okay? Did you meet your friends yet? You were gone for quite a few hours." Her mom came out of the kitchen.

"Um…" A sudden thought popped into Serena's head. "Actually, my new head master called. He said that he would like me in Nagasaki in two days." She held her breath waiting for her mom's reply.

"Well, then you better get to your old school and tell them that you won't be coming back." Serena smiled. She could always count on her mom.

"Okay, then I'll be right back." She rushed out the door but walked to her school. It was rather simple, but for the life of her, she couldn't understand why the principle was in such a rush to get her to leave. He kept uttering, "Nagasaki International, may God help you…" He would mumble something else too, but Serena could never hear what he said. Eventually, Serena was ushered out the door and back onto the street with all of her bad homework, failed tests and quizzes, and all of her drawings. On Monday morning, when everyone went back to school, the art room would be practically barren, and her locker would already belong to someone else.

"Serena, what are you doing?"

At the voice, Serena looked down and saw Artemis behind her. The loyal white cat was always concerned about her. He was her champion.

"You were at the park earlier today weren't you?"

"Well, I was, but I don't agree with everything they said to you." Artemis defended. "I believe that you are always thinking of them over yourself. I know that you are very responsible. You were there helping last night, I know I saw you. Why did you tell me to be quiet? Why didn't you want them to know?"

"It was going to happen whether I wanted it too or not. I was late so I would have gotten yelled at, but unlike Rai I don't have this extraordinary ability to realize when a monster is in Tokyo. I'm not always hanging out with them, I can't know unless they tell me." Serena started walking again. Artemis took a running leap and landed on her shoulder.

"That doesn't explain my first question."

"Which was?"

"What you are doing?"

"I'm quitting this school."

"What? Why? Surely this isn't because of what happened at the park."

"This was in motion even before the park. I got accepted into another school."

"Where?"

"If I tell you, you're not allowed to scream."

"Okay, now spill."

"Nagasaki International Boarding—"

"School for the Arts?!" Artemis screamed.

"Yeah, but with how close you screamed just now, I might have to go and reapply here." Serena rubbed her ear.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize what I was doing. How long have you thought about applying somewhere else for?"

"I haven't. While on vacation in Hakata, a talent scout was there and he gave me his business card and told me to audition. When I did, I was ushered in ahead of everyone else, I sang, they gave me a standing ovation, and—boom—I got accepted."

"That' what you were going to tell them this morning wasn't it?"

"Yeah, except the fact that I was leaving next week, instead of in two days."

"Wait! You leave in two days? What aren't you telling the others about this?"

"The little park incident."

"Why are you leaving so soon?"

"Well, I sort of lied to my mom that they had called and asked for me to come in two days. She believed and because of that I got to quit this school, and before I leave Monday morning, I won't have to see them again." In silence now, they walked back to the Tsukino's house.

oOo

It was later on that same night, Serena's parents and brother had gone shopping, leaving Serena and Artemis home alone. Serena was diligently packing. Artemis was talking. It was like he never quit. He just kept going and going and going. For heaven's sake, he was like the little Energizer Bunny from Hell. He was her only friend right now, but she was going to scream so loud he would be scared to come anywhere near her.

"Serena, who are these pictures of?" Artemis was referring to the pictures of her when she was younger.

"This was my old band. We were called the Girl's Club." She grabbed the photo, thinking about how happy she was. In the picture, she was smiling as she took out her guitar. In the background you could see a red head and a brunette getting their instruments ready.

"I never knew that you were in a band. Why did you quit?"

"This was when I lived in America. About a month after this was taken, I found out that we were moving to Japan for my dad's job."

"When did you live in America?"

"Actually, I was born there. We moved just after my fourteenth birthday." She fingered the photo.

"Do you still play the guitar?" Serena looked around her room. She was trying to remember what she had done with it. Remembering, she ran from her room to her parent's room, where the entrance to the attic was. She grabbed the little string and tugged the stairs down. On the far wall, her guitar case was propped up. She picked it up and took it back to her room where Artemis was waiting.

"I haven't played it in such a long time…I don't know if I still can." She opened it up to reveal a black electric guitar. "This was the first present from my parents I remember getting. It took them so long just to scrimp and save for it. I loved it. They didn't know that I wanted an acoustic guitar though. I didn't mind so much as long as I had one. The next day I took it to my lesson and that's when I met the other members of my band."

"Who else was in it?"

"The red head's name is Emily Kings, and the brunette's is Rachel Angelini. Emily played the drums, and Rachel was awesome on the bass."

"Did you guys right your own songs?"

"I wrote them all and sang them."

"In this picture which one were you guys singing?" Serena walked over to her closet to grab two black zipper binders out of it.

"These are all of our songs. Normally we just played outside in the parks, but with this one we were invited to do a little show for the Rose Parade. It was kind of like a little contest to send in a video for, and we won it by a land slide."

"You wrote so many you needed two binders for them?"

"No, but we were going strong for over two years, even though we were pretty young. I had to write music for guitar, bass, and drums. Drums it was simple, but guitar and bass took a little more work. For a while I also wrote songs for only piano. Lately that's all I've been writing for. Besides that I had to write lyrics for all the songs. For the Rose Parade, we sung…let's see... 'High School.'"

"You weren't even in high school yet."

"That's beside the point. We had so much fun together. We always promised that we would go to a great music school together, then graduate at the top of our class and with honors."

"Why did they think that you would graduate top of your class?" Artemis scoffed.

Serena smiled. "When I was in California, I _was_ at the top of my class. I had the highest grade out of everyone in the entire school. It was Emily and Rachel that were having troubles in school."

"Why did you change so much when you came here?"

"I stopped writing because I didn't have a band to write anything for anymore. I read comic books and played in the arcade because that's what they had always done. Do you know how long it took for me to start liking milkshakes? I thought that those were the grossest things in the world. I just stopped caring."

"That's why your parents were so mad at you each time you brought home a failing grade."

"Yeah, but I deserved it. I have an IQ of 159. I am smart enough to do the work; I just don't." For a short while, Serena and Artemis went through the songs, looking at each one as though it were a priceless treasure. In each of the binders there were folded papers that showed how long Serena had worked on each piece. Words were crossed out, erase marks showed clearly through, and even complete papers scratched out.

_BUZZ. BUZZ._

"It's the communicator," was all Artemis said. For a while they both looked at the horrid piece of technology.

"Serena, get your butt down here, we need your help." It was Rai. As always they were crawling back to her. Serena shut her eyes and thought about what she was going to do. "Serena!"

With swiftness born from adversity, Serena rushed to her communicator and heaved it against the wall, shattering it into a million little pieces. The voice of Rai screaming at her immediately stopped. Serena took in a deep breath.

"It's finally over," was all she said.

oOo

Darien had to talk to Serena. He couldn't understand why she had been avoiding all of his calls. There had been battles with the woman in white, and she hadn't shown up for either of them. If the scouts didn't hate her before, they most certainly hated her now. Mina was mad at her because Artemis was also missing.

Each night since the day in the park, Darien had walked to Serena's house, trying to get her to open up to him. He hadn't wanted her to scream at him. He just wanted her to understand that they didn't appreciate the attitude she was giving them. She was only ever thinking of herself. She had to think of someone else before herself. They only wanted to tell her, but she had to go and take it way out of proportion. She couldn't stop being Sailor Moon.

It was three nights after the day in the park, and he just couldn't take it anymore. Her light was on so he climbed up the trellis to see if she was in it. She wasn't, but when he tried the window, it was locked.

"Of course. She was so irrationally mad she looked the windows. Stupid Meatball Head." He was about to turn around and climb back down the trellis when he noticed a difference in her room. Her bed, right below the window, was bare. Not one sheet or pillow was on it. He glanced around the rest of the room. The things she used for her hair were gone. Her lotions, perfumes, body sprays, and make up were all gone. Confused, Darien looked in closer and the open drawer and the closet door that was wide open. The drawer held nothing in it. Likewise with the closet. _What the heck?_ Things she had treasured were gone. Books, the few that she had, were gone. All her jewelry was gone. Her jacket and sweaters were all gone.

The only things that remained were her dresser, the bed, and her desk. Everything else was gone. He didn't understand how Serena just disappeared. She had done this twice in one week.

"Darien, can you get Serena on her communicator for us?" Ami was looking for Serena. She had been for a while, but he had ignored his phone. While he was looking in the window, he had unconsciously picked up his phone.

"Why?"

"She wasn't at school today."

"So, she probably went back on vacation."

"No, you don't understand. This new kid took her spot in each of her classes and even her locker. When I went into the art room, all of her pictures were taken down. When I asked the principal about it, he wouldn't say anything. I can't get her on her communicator, could you see where she is?"

"Serena's not here anymore."

"Here? Where's 'here'?"

"I'm standing on her trellis looking into her window. _All _of her things are gone. Her room is totally bare. There's nothing on the walls, nothing in her drawers or closet, nothing on her bed."

"We need to find her." Ami hung up. Darien remained on the phone, stunned.

In the corner of the room were pictures. They were pictures of him, the Scouts, and her all together. Pictures of she and him kissing, pictures of the scouts and her laughing. All the pictures that she had ever taken were in that little corner. On top of some of them were the things that he had given her. A coat she had never given back, a cross necklace, and more pictures she had never realized he took. Letters from him to here were over there. What scared him the most was the fact that her communicator cover was broken from the rest of it. He scanned the room looking for her crystal, but he never found it. At the wall just above the pile was a small dent in the wall. Mechanical pieces were in. _She destroyed her communicator_.


	5. Missing

Okay, this is the next chapter. I just wanted to tell you guys that Nagasaki International is supposed to be the elite of the elite. It is the type of school that is always in the newspapers, but everyone is really annoyed to hear of. ;)

All the songs that Serena writes, for now, are by Evanescence. Chapter 1's song is **Imaginary**, and chapter 3's is **You**, in chapter 5 the songs are **My Immortal **and **Missing**.I do not own sailor moon or evanescence.

* * *

Chapter 5—Missing

"You…are…killing…them…" The woman in white was haunting her dreams again. Her unholy eyes seemed to bare into her innermost soul.

"How, how am I killing them?"

The voice of the woman changed. It was faster and deeper. A voice she had heard before; one that she would never forget. "The moon goddess holds the secret to your questions."

"Selene? How would she know?"

"Haven't you ever wondered—"

Serena woke up before she ever heard the end of the woman's question. She never jerked, never sweated; she just remained lying dawn in the bed. She had been in Nagasaki for two days. The school had provided her with an apartment just outside of the school. She had moved in rather easily and then called her parents. Artemis was with her so that helped them her a bit, but she was ready to make new friends and leave her old ones behind. Last night she had been too exhausted to dream so it was the first perfect night of sleep since she had gone to the beach. Tonight, however, was torture. The woman's voice had turned from a dark whisper to her mother's—Queen Serenity's—voice.

"Artemis?" He was sleeping at the foot of her bed. Serena nudged the cat with her foot, accidentally causing him to roll off the bed. "Oh Artemis, are you okay?"

"Yeah…what's wrong?" He asked groggily.

"Do you know who Selene is?"

"She is the moon goddess, and the sister to Nyx. Why?"

"Did she ever really exist?"

"She lived on the moon before the attack by Beryl. At least, a woman by the name of Selene did. Selene was an old witch that your mother knew extremely well. There were rumors circulating that Selene was your mother's grandmother. Nyx was there too, but she was quieter than her counterpart."

"Is there any way to get to the moon without the help of the sailor scouts?"

"Serena, what's wrong? Why are you asking me this in the middle of the night?"

"I just had a dream, and the woman in it told me the moon goddess could answer my questions. I need to ask Selene something."

"I suppose there is a way to do it, but, only Luna would know how."

"Oh come on, Artemis, you're just as smart as Luna is. You have to know a way to the moon."

"I'm sorry, Serena, I just don't know any way to get there, apart from the scouts."

"Okay." Serena grumbled, not wanting to give up. She had to figure out how to get to the moon. One way or another she would.

oOo

—1 ½ years later—

It was a short time, but Serena was graduating high school a year and a half early—and with a 4.0 in all of her classes. She had never gone home, not during her month long Christmas break or her four month long summer or even her week off for various holidays. She had been at her apartment working on her homework trying to be able to get her school work done. In her history class, just before her first Halloween in Nagasaki, she had to research paranormal activities. During that time she was also researching anyways to get onto the moon. She had finally discovered the way onto the moon. Every forty years a meteor struck the same exact spot in Okinawa, after hitting the same exact spot on the moon. It was as if someone had sent the meteor down to Japan. How it happened every forty years though no one knew, for the meteor always disappeared before the scientists had given it time enough to cool off. It was always the same size too. Serena figured that was the only she would ever get to the moon. The next time it would come to earth would be in Friday, January 13, of her eleventh grade year.

Because she didn't know how long it would take for her to find Selene, she figured that she would have to take off of school for a long time. Serena had decided to ask her teachers if she could graduate early. Luckily they said that if she could do the work, she was welcome to do it. She had done the work. She had passed each and every test, quiz, and homework paper with over a hundred percent. She had no life, but hey, she was still graduating early.

The woman in white was still visiting her every night. Normally she talked in her whispered voice, but sometimes it switched to Serenity and even Beryl. Whatever she did she could never shake the feeling that the woman in white was neither a good nor evil foe. She was, after all, trying to help Serena and the other scouts wasn't she? How could she be evil?

"Serena, have you practiced your piece yet?" Artemis came walking into her room. She was just sitting alone watching the night sky.

"I don't see why I have to practice. I would much rather be in Okinawa getting ready for the meteor than practicing." There was always a catch. Her teachers said that since she was graduating she had to do the same as all of the other graduates—a recital piece with the score and lyrics written by the person graduating. Joy of joys—not that she minded writing a song. It was the fact that she would have to sing it in front of a packed auditorium.

"Well, too darn bad, get your butt over to that piano and practice." Artemis wasn't going to let up until she actually did it so, she got up and started to play. Before she knew it she had gotten to the chorus:

"These wounds won't seem to heal,

This pain is just too real,

There's just too much that time cannot erase.

When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears,

When you screamed, I'd fight away all of your fears,

And I held your hand through all of these years.

But you still have all of me."

The song was written for Darien. It was supposed to show herself that she had moved on with her life. In the end though, with each dream that he invaded, she had to remember the pain and the love of her life. She had never finished either of the songs that she had started to write that morning of the fight in the park. She had wanted to be able to sing one of those, but it had taken so much energy to just try to remember why she had liked Darien or her friends in the first place. She knew that with each of them, they had their own special qualities, but with her…well, she had always seemed to bring out the worst in everyone.

Serena played the last note of her song quietly. She had wanted to be able to forget her friends, as they had obviously forgotten her, but they were always there, always making her life miserable, always making her wish they could have found a way to stop arguing and start being friends again. The last time she had spoken to her parents, her mom had said that Darien had moved to New York City, and Ami's mom was offered a great paying job in London, so they moved there. Only Mina, Lida, and Rai remained in Tokyo, but apparently none of them visited each other anymore. Mina had her entire focus on volleyball, which got her a free scholarship to a pretty good sports school in Tokyo. Rai was allowed to go to the same school as Lida, but even though they were at the same school, they revolved in different crowds. For only a day after Serena had been in Nagasaki, her friends had called her house non-stop. After that, they never dropped by, never called, never greeted each other in the street when they passed.

Serena had written a song immediately after she had gotten here though. Quietly she started to sing it, just like she did whenever she started to miss them.

"Please, please forgive me,  
But I won't be home again.  
Maybe someday you'll look up,  
And, barely conscious, you'll say to no one:  
"Isn't something missing?"

You won't cry for my absence, I know -  
You forgot me long ago.  
Am I that unimportant...?  
Am I so insignificant...?  
Isn't something missing?  
Isn't someone missing me?

Even though I'm the sacrifice,  
You won't try for me, not now.  
Though I'd die to know you love me,  
I'm all alone.  
Isn't someone missing me?"


	6. The Moon Goddess

Chapter 6—The Moon Goddess

"Thank you, Serena, for playing that piece." It was Serena's headmaster talking. It was the graduation ceremony, finally. After this Serena could freely get to Okinawa and try to travel up to the moon to see Selene. _Please let this ceremony be over soon._ Serena already had everything packed and waiting for her, now if only she could get out of this building.

"For our last point in the ceremony—" _Thank goodness!_ "We have the great privilege to announce the scholarships that our students have one. This year we have four of them. Firstly, we have a $30,000 scholarship from Berkley to Alana Satō. Congratulations!"

Everyone in the auditorium erupted into thunderous clapping. Serena slouched down into her seat more. This was taking way too long. After the roar ended, the headmaster continued.

"Secondly, we have another $30,000 scholarship from Mannes College to Patrick Fitzgerald. Congratulations!" More clapping. "Thirdly, we have a $100,000 scholarship from the Art Institute in Vancouver to Sipsip Goh. Congratulations!"

As the clapping started up yet again, Serena pressed her fingers to her temples trying to calm the head ache that was imminent. The headmaster had to raise his hands to try and quiet the audience this time.

"For our last and probably our greatest scholarship any student for ours has ever received is a full college scholarship, all expenses paid, from Julliard to Serena Tsukino." Serena sat up straight to look at the headmaster. Not one hand clapped, not one person spoke. No one did anything; they were all too busy staring at her. Slowly, Serena got off her chair and walked towards the front where the headmaster was waiting for her. As she started to walk, the applause started up. First one person, then another and another and another, until finally the entire auditorium was clapping for her. Finally she made it up to the front. She didn't know what to do. Does she stand there like an idiot? Does she make a speech? Should she sing? _What do I do? _She thought frantically.

"Serena, since you have the largest scholarship we have ever announced, we would like you to honor us with singing us another piece that you wrote." _Another piece? How the heck am I going to be able to sing, let alone remember the right notes to play? Julliard?! How did I get into Julliard? Darien, what do I do? _Serena became alert. Darien? Why did she think of Darien?

Darien's song…she could play the song that she had written for Darien that morning in the park! The words were finished, but the piano could use a little work. It was the only piece that could be played on the piano, though. Slowly, Serena nodded and sat down on the piano bench.

"So many nights, I've cried myself to sleep

Now that you love me, I love myself.

I never thought I would say that.

I never thought there'd be you."

The applause echoed throughout the building as she played the ending. It was the first time she had thought of Darien or his song in a while. She still felt heart-broken while she was singing it, but the tears that rolled down her cheeks, she was sure the audience thought were just tears of joy.

"Thank you all for coming to our half point graduation ceremony. Let me be the first to welcome to you all the graduating class of 20XX." Without further ado, all of the graduating class, apart from Serena, threw their caps into the air. Serena was still crying. She sat back down at the piano as everyone filed out of the auditorium. "Serena, will you be okay here?"

She couldn't talk so she nodded. As he walked away from her, she buried her head in her hands. Could she stand being in the same city as Darien and not being able to see him? Was this a blessing or a curse? Was Julliard really worth it?

oOo

She had decided. She was going to Okinawa until she had to go to New York. It was going to be tough for her, but could it really be any tougher than having to walk away and leave him and all of her friends in Tokyo? Could it be any tougher than having to move across the Pacific Ocean to a place where she didn't know anyone? There was no possible way.

"Well…here I go…" The meteor was set to impact in exactly twenty minutes, and Serena had plans of being in there when it went back up. She didn't care if she got arrested or anything. She had to get to the moon. No one was even around the meteor touchdown site, so she knew that she would get arrested, but she still wished that she could have gone up with the scouts. She didn't especially like getting killed by a meteor, just to be brought to the moon. The sky turned an explosive green as the meteor came hurtling down. It was approximately two thirty of Friday, January thirteenth.

Ten minutes passed without delay, and with each minute that the meteor closed in, the ground where Serena stood shook. As it got closer to the earth, the ground shook so hard that Serena actually fell to the ground. There was no way that she was going to stand up, just to be knocked back down again. Finally the last ten minutes were up, and as they ended and the meteor hit, Serena was thrown up two feet in the air only to land once again on her butt.

She moved the hair out of her face. Her mouth dropped open at the sight of the meteor.

If this could even be considered a meteor, it was the prettiest meteor she had ever seen, and she hadn't seen a lot, but she was pretty sure no meteors looked like a pearl. She couldn't understand why no scientists were here. This had to be the greatest discovery of the world. A meteor coming from the moon that looked almost exactly like a pearl? This would make headlines all over the world. Cautiously, Serena walked up to the red glowing rock. She reached out her hand to touch it, but when she was only a breath away…

"I wondered when you would finally realize where to find me."

Serena took a step away from the rock when she heard the voice. She got even more scared though when a hand reached out of the rock. Her French manicured nails and rings showed that it had to be the goddess she had been looking for. Sending a prayer heavenwards, she gripped the hand and was pulled into the rock. It was like being in an elevator. When she got in she felt a little jolt and then suddenly nothing.

"What's happening?" Serena asked.

"We are traveling back to the moon."

"You are Selene, correct?"

"No, I am her servant, sent down here to make sure that you arrive safely to the moon."

"Why didn't she come herself?"

"Well, in the past you had never been there before. I assume that she got tired of waiting for you."

"Some goddess…" Serena mumbled.

"She is kind and gentle though, and that is all that matters."

"When will we get there exactly?"

"We are there. If you will step out of the pearl…" With a little shove, Serena was out of the pearl and standing on the face of the moon. Stretched out before her was a mansion and its gardens. Roses upon roses upon roses with each a different color lined the way for her to take to get to the mansion. Slowly she walked up the path. Waiting for her on the porch of the mansion were five women—and one of them was the woman in white. Serena stopped trying to figure out if she was at the right place.

"Welcome, my child." One of the women came down the path towards Serena. Still wary, Serena wasn't about to move. "Welcome to my house. I am Selene."

Serena started to bow but stopped when she saw the woman in white coming down the path towards her. One of the women detained her though. "It is a pleasure to meet you, my lady."

"I see that you are already acquainted with Kali."

"Kali?"

"The goddess of time. Nyx, Eris, bring Kali down here so that Serena might meet her." Nyx the goddess of night and Eris the goddess of strife brought the enemy down. Anyone who goes into people's dreams ought not to have the right to be gently brought down to "meet" someone. Serena wanted to kill her.

"I know you do, but unfortunately for you, it was all of our plans to bring you here."

"You guys aren't allowed to mess around with dreams though."

"Darrienia had to go into your dreams to get you to come here."

"Why did you want me to come here so badly?"

"Have you ever wondered how Beryl just suddenly appeared in the past?"

"No, I always figured that it was just political distress that caused her to come out of hiding. What does she have to do with this?"

"Beryl is alive and is threatening our way of life."

"What? No! No, no NO! Beryl is dead! I killed her!"

"You don't understand. For you to have killed her, she has to be sent back into the past."

"I don't understand." Serena's mouth was ajar. She was trying to understand how this had happened.

"I messed up," whispered a desperate Kali. Serena glared at the woman.

"What do you mean you messed up?"

"I accidentally said something about Beryl coming back, and the next thing I knew was that she was here." Serena took one threatening step towards the small goddess.

"Calm down, Serena." Selene gripped her by the shoulders to hold her back from killing the goddess that had caused her so many sleepless nights.

"What do you propose that I do about it?"

"Defeat her yet again."

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

"The strength of the silver crystal is stronger than ever before. It should be able to do the job."

"Doesn't that mess up the time line though? Doesn't that mean that I never really killed Beryl with the scouts help? Why can't that stupid goddess just send her back to the time where she belongs?"

"Because this is how it's supposed to be. During the Moon Kingdom there was political upheaval, but when Luna found you and gave you the locket, your future self had already sent Beryl back to the past."

"Different things have happened though. She was stronger that I am now."

"Of course she was…" The hair on the back of Serena's neck stood on end at the sound of her most hated enemy. "Just about everyone is stronger than you are. You couldn't even keep you and your friends together without arguing."

"Beryl…"was all Serena said. She closed her eyes and told herself to wake up. This was all just a horrible dream. There was no way that Beryl was here talking to her. There was just no way.

"I am here, Serena. You know it too. You cannot deny the fact that you didn't do your job completely enough. You can't ignore the fact that I am officially your worst nightmare now."

"You have never been a nightmare for me, just a nuisance." Serena said as she turned around to face the red haired, purpled dressed witch. "I killed you once, and I can kill you again."

"Really? I'm more powerful than ever before and you can't do anything without the Silver Crystal and all of your friends."

"I, too, am more powerful. I have the crystal. I _can_ defeat you!"

Without warning, Beryl's hand suddenly clamped down on the crystal in Serena's pocket. "Oh, you mean this crystal?" With a knowing glance, Beryl squeezed her hand. Serena heard a crunch, just as everything went black.

oOo

"Nyx, will you please go get the book please?" As Selene's sister went to get the Book of Spells, Selene always used; Selene carried Serena onto the mansion. After Beryl had broken, Serena's crystal, she had disappeared laughing. She knew that without the crystal there was no way for Serena to win any battle no matter how easy the battle was.

Soon enough Nyx brought the book back. Selene gracefully went through each page of the book, looking for a particular spell to use on Serena. She didn't know what to do. Serena could only live so long without the power of the crystal. With the god powers that Selene wanted to give to her, she could live a little longer, but she would die before any of the scouts or Darien ever realized what was going on. She would have to go back in time and live through each of the hard times yet again. Serena was already too broken from that. Finally she came to the most powerful spell in the book. It was one of the easiest to say, but it was also one of the most destructive.

"I hope that you will come to forgive me for this Serena." Selene looked at Serena hopefully. "Are we ready?" There were now eight goddesses surrounding Serena, who was lying on the porch couch. If Serena was going to be so drastically changed then the least they could do was make it so that she was comfortable. When Aphrodite, Polymnia, and Fortuna had heard about the young Moon princess they had come to the moon immediately. "For you who has died too early in your young life, may you to this life return. Though without your original power from this day on may you have the great power of the gods of Rome, Greece, and Egypt."

"For my gift, I give you for the rest of your days sweet dreams," said Darrienia to the sleeping princess.

"For my gift, I give you beauty beyond measure." Aphrodite said.

"For my gift, I give you fortune." After Fortuna, each said their gift coinciding with their particular god power. Eventually Serena started to breathe again. When she finally woke up, she was back on earth, in her apartment, in a nice warm bed, with a white cat sitting on top of her chest.

"Serena, are you okay?" Artemis asked. She started to cry. She sat up, searched the pockets of the jeans that she had worn. Finally she brought out the compact. "Serena, what's wrong?"

"It broke. Beryl broke the crystal." With a sniffle she opened it, out came mainly dust and small pieces of the crystal. She dropped the case and put her face into her hands. "She broke it…she broke it…she broke it…"


	7. Coming Home

The song is **Haunted** by Evanescence.

* * *

Chapter 7—Coming Home

—Ten Years Later—

Darien Shields was on his way to Tokyo, Japan. Since he left Japan, he had become a world famous heart doctor. People from all ages from all over the world came to him. Though he made news with each "broken" heart he mended, his heart couldn't be fixed until he saw her again. Serena Tsukino was the only one who could repair him, the only who could make him whole. He had never felt so lost than in the last ten years, yet his pride kept him from going back to Tokyo. He had treated her so badly, and felt so guilty over it now.

"Flight 371 to Tokyo is now boarding." Darien stood up to put his lap top bag over his shoulder.

"Oof." A woman said as her head connected with his elbow. Startled, Darien turned around to look at the woman. "I thought you stopped "bumping" into people after you got together with Serena."

The calm, always logical, voice crashed into Darien like a tidal wave. "Ami?" Darien was incredulous. "Are you going to Tokyo?"

"Yup. Rai and Serena have all but fallen off the earth. Lida, Mina, and I were kind of hoping to repair things with Serena, so we're all going back."

Darien looked beyond her and saw the Number One cook in the United States, Lida Kino, and beside her sat two time Olympic gold volleyball champion, Mina Aino. Then what Ami said sunk into his soul.

"Wait, what did you mean _both_ Serena and Rai are missing?"

"Well…Rai isn't missing. She's a Tokyo weather girl that won't pick up her phone."

"So, Serena is missing?" Darien's heart faltered.

"I called Andrew the other day, he hasn't seen her for ten years. Why are you going back?"

"I _was_ going back to see Serena, but it looks like I'm officially part of the search and rescue."

"Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming,

Cannot cease for the fear of silent nights.

Oh how I long for the deep sleep dreaming

The goddess of imaginary light."

Ami's phone rang. Looking disgusted, she turned it off and threw it back into the bottomless pit, she always called a purse.

"Who sings that song?" Darien asked. It was calming even though the lyrics were somewhat depressing.

"Selene. It's called Imaginary. They're my favorite band. The bassist is so cute." Ami sighed. "We need to find Serena." Slowly they boarded the plane. Luckily for them all of them sat together in the middle of coach. Around ten minutes into the flight the movie _Sahara_ started to play. Darien wasn't too interested in the movie though. His mind was focused on how they were going to find Serena. His mind started to rebel. _What if a monster got to her, while we were all ignoring her? What if she's dead? What if there was a bad car accident, and all of her family died? What if she's been living alone for the past ten years? What if…_ Finally, just as _Sahara_ ended, Darien's mind couldn't take anymore. He tried to focus on what was going to be going on next. It was an American talk show called E-News.

"Hello, and welcome back to E-News. I'm your anchor Kent Lee, and we've been talking about Billionaires and their money. We have just reached the last of the people. For the richest person in world—in beauty, personality, and money, we have the lead singer of the number one band in the world joining us. Please welcome the lead singer of the band Selene, Serena Tsukino." A shout went across the audience in the television studio and on the plane.

Serena's old friends looked at each other. Tsukino wasn't a popular name, neither was Serena. _It has to be!_ On the stage came a tall, short haired brunette—with Serena Tsukino's eyes.

"No wonder we couldn't find her," stated Lida. "She didn't want to be found."

"She's chewing gum, in four inch stilettos, and walking across the stage!" Mina exclaimed. They continued staring at the screen. Serena raised both of her hands and waved at the audience.

"She has a French manicure." Lida looked at her own nails longingly.

"Her clothes are beautiful." Ami looked at her own business suit attire, trying not to compare it with Serena's khaki mini skirt, white sleeveless top, and stilettos.

"Welcome, Serena." The anchor said.

"Thank you for having me." Serena replied. Her voice was the same, a little more grown up, but the same nonetheless.

"Okay, so we know almost all about you. You were born in Los Angeles on June 30, 19XX, at four pounds. You started the Girls' Club at twelve then moved to Japan at thirteen. Nothing much happened between then and sixteen. At age sixteen, you started going to Nagasaki International Boarding School for the Arts. You graduated a year and a half early, and at the top of your class. After that you got a full scholarship to Julliard, where you also graduated at the top—"

Darien choked on his water. Quickly he looked over at the others. They were having similar problems. Serena graduated at the top of her class in the two most famous schools of the world?

"—after Julliard, did you start singing? Or tell us what really happened?"

"Well, I started writing songs for Girls' Club. For a while I stopped, but for some reason I started back up again around a month before I got accepted into Nagasaki International. I sang and wrote before and during my stats at both academies. I got my fortune before leaving Julliard though, because I was in a couple musicals on Broadway."

"Really? Which ones?"

"_Beauty and the Beast, Wicked_, and Ursula in the _Little Mermaid_ was actually my first role."

"These shows really sold out then didn't they?" At Serena's nod, the anchor continued. "We have heard some rumors of late. By any chance do you know Darien Shields, the famous heart doctor?"

Serena's face paled. "Um…actually I did know him, but that was before he was all over the news."

"Did you ever date him though?" The anchor persisted. Darien didn't think it was possible, but Serena's face paled even more. _How are you going to answer Serena?_ Darien held his breath. If she said no, then it isn't Serena.

"He was actually my first boyfriend," was all Serena said. The anchor didn't look one bit surprised.

"That was one of the major rumors, we've heard. If Dr. Shields is listening, I'll bet your career just improved. By any chance are you, or were you ever, friends with Dr. Ami Mizuno, Olympic winner, Mina Aino, or Cook Lida Kino?"

Serena's face was white. "We were friends for a time yes."

"Would you mind telling us what happened?"

"Well…" shakily, Serena brushed her hair out of her eyes. "It was over the course of a couple years; so when I went off to Nagasaki International, they left too, and we just never got back in touch with one another."

"Is this a painful subject for you?"

"It was a very painful subject until after I graduated Julliard. You are actually the first person to ask me about it at all, so I was a little startled."

"What if you see them again?" Darien held his breath.

"Honestly, I think they would walk the other way."

"Why?"

"Because that is what I did just before I moved to Nagasaki. We had a terrible fight, one of our worst, and I just walked away. Needless to say, they were a "little" angry." Everyone laughed. Darien and the scouts slouched even lower into their seats. _Please don't show a picture._

"How did you end up being the world's most sought after rocker when you went to Julliard?"

"Actually, I went there because I wanted training in the vocals. I got training in guitar and piano too, but it was mainly for vocals."

"And now you own the only music producing company in the world, with three offices.

"Yup, one in Tokyo that I run, one in New York that is run by my friend Emily Kings, and the one in Europe is run by my other friend Rachel Angelini."

"How do you know those girls?"

"They were my fellow Girl's Club members."

"Well, why don't you sing your number one hit for us?"

"Which one?" Serena grinned.

"Oh, yes, that's right…each of your songs all hit number one. Um…let's ask the audience. Which of Selene's songs do you want to hear?"

Everyone yelled the same thing—Haunted. Serena laughed and nodded her head. She rolled her eyes, then got up to stand in front of the microphone just ahead of her band.

"Long lost words, whisper slowly to me

Still can't find what keeps me here.

When all this time, I've been so hollow in side

I know your still there."

Everyone gave Serena and her band a standing ovation. The anchor was smiling from ear to ear.

"That was Serena Tsukino, the richest person in the world." The camera spun out again to show the audience members.

Lida finally spoke what was on everyone's mind. "Did it say that Serena is the richest person in the world?"


	8. Reunion

Chapter 8—Reunion

"How the heck did Serena become the richest person in the world in only ten years?" Lida asked looking at the people beside her. They all shrugged. They knew that it was Serena, but someone had to be lying. Meatball head Serena, could not be the richest person.

"Some people say she was blessed by the gods. But if you actually look at all of the music that she produces, you'll see that she is the richest person in the world." Lida turned around to look at the person behind her that was talking to her. It was just a young teen girl. "Besides the fact that she bought out every music production group in the world, thus giving her a monopoly on everything, each song she's ever sung _always _made it to the number one spot on every list in the world. So…yeah… she is the richest person in the world." The girl sat back down, leaving everyone else to think about what she had said.

There was no way that the meatball head that they knew could be the richest person in the world. There was just no way. She wasn't meatball head anymore though. She was a short haired brunette now. She didn't have meatballs.

"Please return to your seats, and buckle your seat belts. We will be landing at Narita International Airport shortly." Everyone quieted down as they went into land. They all continued to think about Serena though. They knew that they had to find her somehow. Ten years was a long time, maybe she had forgotten how mad she was at them. Maybe she would understand their point of view now that she had ten years to have thought about it.

"Welcome to Narita International Airport. It is 19° C or 66° F. The date is June 2, 20XX, and the forecast is calling for at least two inches of rain. Enjoy your stay in Japan, and welcome to Tokyo."

Darien and the others waited until everyone else was off of the plane, before they finally grabbed their carry-on bags and walked off of the plane. As always the airport was insanely busy. There were people of all sorts running to get to the right terminal before their plane took off, running to go see their families. The shops were busy with people waiting for their flights. Suitcases and packages were everywhere. Darien and the others walked to baggage reclaim to get everything they needed.

They had just walked outside when it started to rain. Darien looked at the sky wondering if his day could get any worse. It had started off pretty well, but then with discovering the fact that Serena was the richest person in the world and that she was so popular there was no way in hell that he was ever going to be able to get her alone so that they could talk to each other. Taking a deep breath, Darien walked out onto the parking lot. Unfortunately, he wasn't watching where he was going and his foot came into contact with an extremely slippery spot of the pavement. While he was falling, he was thinking that he was so glad that Serena wasn't there to watch him fall on his back.

"Sir, are you okay?" A very pretty woman came up to him. She held her umbrella over him so that he wouldn't get anymore wet than already was. He rubbed the water out of his eyes to look up at the woman who was kneeling beside him. She was perfectly dry and wearing a khaki mini skirt with a sleeveless white shirt. Her stilettos weren't the smartest choice for the type of day. He looked up at her. The short brown hair she sported, framed her heart shaped face. He looked into her eyes, her magnificent blue eyes. As he looked into her though, it meant that she got the chance to look into his. When she did, he knew when she recognized him. "Darien?"

"It's me, Serena." Serena stood up quickly. She dropped her umbrella in her shock. The rain ran down her shocked face, dragging her make up with it. Her perfect hand was covering her mouth. He stood up to his full height. It used to be almost a foot in difference, now it was just two inches. Without her stilettos it still wouldn't be as far as it was. "Serena?"

"No," she shook her head. They just continued to stare into each other's eyes.

"Serena we have to leave now." Darien didn't know who the man and woman waiting for her were, but they didn't look like there were too happy to be kept waiting.

"Look! It's Selene!" The crowd around them burst. They, all but, carried Serena away from Darien, even though they were still looking at each other. Before they could start asking her for her autograph, the man waiting for her gripped her shoulders and ushered her into the car waiting for them. Unbelieving Darien stared at the car as it drove his love away. Ami, Lida, and Mina rushed out to see why he was so wet. When they heard the screaming fans, they knew exactly what had happened. Ami touched his shoulder in a comforting manner.

"Mina's parents are letting us stay at their house. Come on." They all crammed into the back seat of a taxi. Darien didn't want to go to Mina's; he wanted to follow the car they took Serena away in. He wanted to know why Serena looked like she had seen a ghost. He wanted to know why she hadn't said a word more than no. He wanted to know if she could forgive him.

oOo

Serena's mouth still hung open as they drove her to her office building in the heart of Tokyo. Her business was called by the same name everywhere—Midnight Music. She was practically always there; it was her home away from home. It was her home when her father got to be too much for her to handle. Her mother had died just after she graduated from Julliard. Her father was so distraught, he started to drink, and with each drink he had, he got more violent. Before Sammy had contacted her in America, he had already been in the emergency room twice, both times from broken bones caused by their abusive father. Serena had him arrested, then she moved Sammy out of their old house to a new one. Because he was an extremely smart, he got accepted into Tokyo School for Gifted Children. It was a boarding school so he wasn't really home very often. It was better that way since she wasn't home often either. As a matter of fact, she had just gotten home from America.

"Serena your schedule for today is extremely busy. You have three appointments today. Your first one is with Emily, and the next is from Rachel. The last one is from a TV station asking to be able to use your music for one of their commercials."

"What do Rachel and Emily need?" Serena loved her work normally. Today she was much more interested to know why Darien was suddenly back in Tokyo.

"I am not sure of the exact reason. Oh, your CEO of Industries needs to talk to you also."

"Fine, just give me twenty minutes to change." They had arrived at her office. It was currently the tallest building in Tokyo. She knew what her CEO wanted. It was to expand their horizons. Right now they only had major offices in Tokyo, New York, and London. They had talent scouts out everywhere though. _I guess it is time. Not much we can do right now though, we only have so much time left. _

After she showered and blew her hair dry, Serena felt wonderful. She re did her make up and put on clean clothing. Because she normally slept at her office on the top floor, she always had clothes there. This time she put on black Bermuda shorts and a grey long sleeve shirt. She slipped into clogs and went out to do a video conference with Emily and Rachel. They had met again at Julliard where they had all hoped to meet once again, even though Serena was already a year and a half ahead of them. It didn't matter though because they were immediate friends again. Only they had helped Serena to get over Darien and the others. When she asked them if they wanted to be vice presidents of Midnight Music, they agreed without hesitation, and now they were almost as rich as she was. They enjoyed what they did too, they loved being able to give people what they've always wanted. It was just a quick little conference, they just wanted to catch up with the work that Serena had been avoiding while vacationing in America. After that conference she went back to her office to call the station that wanted to use her music. Normally she said yes immediately, but for this one she had to say no. They wanted to use her music to "Bring Me to Life" for Preparation H©. _Ewwww. _Serena thought. _That is not the way I want my music to be remembered. _She gagged again and shivered.

Now it was time for her to start looking at top musicians. Normally the people that worked below her handled everything that dealt with the people, but once in awhile she enjoyed being able to look at how people sang and what they wrote. Except for once in a great while, what they wrote was really horrible, but they always had very good singing voices. A lot of them wanted to act on Broadway or some such place, and they normally got their jobs, but there was once in a while, one that could do so much better. Instead of sitting down at her desk to work, Serena walked over to the window.

_What are you doing here, Darien? Why did you come back? Why now of all times? Why when it's too late for anything to be done?_


	9. Manifestation

Chapter 9—Manifestation

Serena was everywhere. She was on billboards, on busses, on park benches. She was absolutely everywhere. Her music was accompanied by commercials. The taxi that Darien and the others took to Mina's house was the only music that the driver played. Selene was pretty big in America, but there were other artists that were just as big.

"Do you guys like Selene?" The driver asked.

"Yeah." Only Ami answered. Darien didn't really want to have anything to do with Selene. He wanted Serena. He needed to talk to her. He needed to see if it was too late to be the man that she had always wanted. The hand that had covered her mouth was her left hand, but there was no ring on it. Could she have forgotten it by accident? Could she be in a relationship with someone else? She had acted as if she hadn't wanted to see him. Was he destroying more things by staying here?

"Well, we're here guys."

"What's the total?"

"It's ¥4,000." Ami gave the driver the money as they all got out of the car. The house where they had pulled up was the size of a normal house. It had two floors and was only eighty square miles. Somehow Darien doubted that they were all going to fit in it. Even though they were all staying for free and the house was in a good area, Darien wanted to go back to his old apartment. It was already occupied though; there was no way that he was going to be able to get into it.

"It's going to be a bit of a tight fit, guys, but hey, at least it's free." Mina walked up the steps towards the house. Darien looked to Ami and Mina. He didn't like what he saw.

They were both smiling! How could they be smiling when they all had to cram into that tiny house?

"Mina, it's been so long since we've had a sleep over. I can't wait to do it again." That's why they were so happy. Darien shook his head. He had never gotten the meaning of sleepovers. They were pointless. If you wanted to sleep you could stay at your own house and sleep in a bed; you didn't have to go over to someone's house to do it on the floor. Darien went to the trunk to get all of their suitcases out of it. When he turned around to hand them theirs, they were nowhere to be found. _Figures, they realize since I'm here, I'll just carry in all of the bags. _

"Darien, Rai is on TV." Darien grabbed all four suitcases and made his way to the house. Once he got in, he turned and saw a black haired girl on the television screen. It was definitely Rai. She was talking in front of the map of Japan.

"The forecast for tomorrow is cloudy with a sixty percent chance of rain. It is supposed to get up to 19° C. The next couple of days—" Darien turned away. Rai was only a weather girl. He already knew that though. So did everyone else. All of the forecast tools went off of the screen. "Thank you for joining me on my last day as Tokyo News Channel 12." The screen went back to the main anchors. They were clapping as Rai walked off of the stage.

"Thank you for joining us for the last five years, Rai. We'll miss you. In other news, Tokyo's Princess, Serena Tsukino, returned to Japan today after being gone for a month. Welcome back, Miss Tsukino. Today in world news, the United States—" The anchors started to talk about how the United States' economy started to go back up again.

"So, Rai quit huh?" Mina pointed out the obvious.

"It looks like it." Ami stated looking at the screen as if mesmerized.

"Let's go visit her." Everyone looked at Darien as if he had grown a second head. "What?"

"We can't go visit her!"

"Why not?" They didn't have an answer for that one. The girls looked amongst themselves as if they had to contemplate the answer together, before he was given one.

"Let's go." They weren't that far away from the Temple, so they started on their way there. They walked by department stores sporting the clothing that Serena had been wearing for her interview. Apparently everyone loved what she wore because a lot of people were wearing that same outfit. Even the shoes were the same, which was sad, considering it was still raining.

They reached the temple finally. The grass was overgrown, the fence was weather beaten, and the gate was off of its hinges. They stopped trying to decide if they wanted to enter into the run down looking place. They heard a door slam on the inside. Darien opened the gate. The inside looked even worse. The main temple was so run down it had holes in the roof. The house Rai had slept in was pretty run down too, but it didn't have any holes anywhere. They walked onto the porch and knocked on the grimy door. Rai had always been good with cleaning things. It had always bothered her if there was any dirt on the property. The grass had to always be cut on the same day of the week, the drive swept twice a week, and the house washed at least every two weeks. What had happened to the OCD girl?

"Coming." It was Rai's voice. They heard footsteps as she walked to the door. "Hi, may I help—Oh no!" Her eyes went wide as she saw them standing on her porch. "Um…sorry, but I really have to go."

"Rai! Rai, come here!" Darien yelled for her, but his voice was drowned out because she slammed the door. Darien opened the door to chase after her. He took one step in and was suddenly assaulted with a shoe. It was a tennis shoe, so thankfully no heel, but it still stung. "What was that for?"

Rai was down the hallway, holding the rest of her artillery. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. "Get out of my house," she said menacingly, holding up another shoe for emphasis.

"We just want to talk to you, Rai." Darien told her, quietly taking a step. She threw another shoe at him, but this one he dodged. Unfortunately for Rai, it hit Lida.

"Ow! What was that for?" Rai held on to her shoe's for all she was worth.

"Rai, you seriously need to calm down…" Mina was the only brave one out of them all. She walked towards Rai with her hands in front of her. "Now put down your shoes."

Rai shook her head.

"What's the matter with you? Why are you acting like this?"

"I don't want you in my house, now if you wouldn't mind leaving…"

"Rai, we need to talk to you about Serena."

"What about her?"

"We need to talk to her; we just wanted to know where to find her."

"Then you should have just talked to anyone of her fans, they would have gladly told you were to find her. Now if you don't mind…"

"Fine, we'll leave, but only if you tell us what happened to her and you."

Rai paled. They heard her swallow. "It isn't my place to tell. You have to talk to her."

oOo

Rai watched as they left her yards. She had wanted to talk to them, but she was scared that everything Serena had told her confidence would have been for nothing. Serena…Serena didn't know that Darien and the others were in town. Dropping all of the shoes that she was holding, Rai ran to her phone. She pressed speed dial and all of the appropriate buttons until she finally heard Serena's voice.

"Hello?"

"Serena, it's Rai. Darien and the others are here."

"I know."

"You know?"

"Yes, well I saw Darien slip in a puddle today. I didn't know it was him until I went to help him up. How do you know they're here?"

"They came to my house. They were looking for you."

"Is that all that they wanted?"

"Well…no…they wanted to know what happened to both of us."

"What did you tell them?"

"I told them that it wasn't my place to say. I think that they're going to be coming to your work or your mansion soon though. You might want to warn Sammy."

"They're welcome to come to either place. I can't stop them."

"What if they come back here? I don't think I can keep everything a secret from them."

"It's okay. If worse comes to worse, then we'll have to tell them, but right now everything is going exactly as planned."

"It is?"

"If something out of the ordinary happens between now and my birthday, then we have a problem. But for right now, just calm down."

"Does that mean that they've come here before?"

"No. This is their first time."

"Why did it change?"

"People have free wills, Rai. We can't govern them."

"So, I still don't understand why everything has changed."

"Perhaps, Darrienia has given them a dream to come back. Whatever it is, we can't change it for a while, so just sit tight and relax. Everything will be okay."

"Serena, your dad came to my house again today."

Serena was silent on the other end. "I don't understand what he doesn't get about a restraining order."

"Serena, maybe you should let him see Sammy again."

"I would except it isn't my call, it's Sammy's. Sammy chose not to see him anymore. Rai, if you don't feel safe you can live at the mansion."

"Would you mind if I did?"

"Not at all. You have to remember that I'm hardly ever home though."

"That's fine. I think you should talk to Darien and the others."

"You know I'm not allowed to do that. They have to figure everything out the same way that you did. I have to get back to work, Rai. I'll talk to you later."

Rai didn't even have enough time to say good bye when Serena hung up. It had been a long ten years, but maybe it would change. Maybe they could go back to the way that everything used to be.

oOo

Darien walked into Mina's house again. He didn't want to come back, but when he realized that he had literally been flying all day. It hadn't hit him until he was walking back from Rai's house. He was suddenly so tired it didn't matter that he wanted to so desperately talk to Serena. He had to get back before he collapsed. Once he had finally set up his mat though and lay down, he slept.

It wasn't a peaceful sleep though. He had nightmares for the first time in ten years. It was similar to what he had seen so many years ago that made him break up with Serena. Except this time it felt real. It was if the floor beneath him was crumbling and tearing away. This time Serena was three people—the Princess Serena, the Meatball Head, and the Serena now. Each one looked over at him sadly. They looked like they were tired, not dying. He reached for the Serena he had fallen in love with, the only one for him—Meatball Head. She was just in his reach, but as he touched her, she evaporated like the dew in the morning. He immediately reached for the princess, but she too evaporated.

"Do you see how they disappear, Darien?" It was the Serena now. Her voice was sad.

"Why do they do that?"

"Wasn't it what you did?"

"What? I never left you Serena. I was always right beside you."

"Where were you for the past ten years, Darien? You weren't even in Japan, let alone Tokyo. You were in America."

"Before that I was always there for you."

"If you had been, they never would have disappeared. Why did you even bother to come back?"

"I came back because I love you. I came back because my I finally could. I came back because I want another chance with you."

"How can I trust you?" She disappeared, just as Darien awoke. He looked around him as though he expected to see her. _Serena, wherever you are, I promise you that I will prove to you that you can trust me again with your love. I promise._

oOo

Serena was sitting at her desk. Her laptop was open as if she was doing work, but in all actuality she wasn't. She was focusing on Darien. She knew he was asleep, which was all the more reason to focus on him. Selene had given her god powers. One of the benefits of having the god powers was being able to go into other people's dreams, which is what she had done with Darien.

"I'm sorry, Darien, but I had to know why you're really here." Serena got up to stand in front of the window. It was dark outside, the stars shone brightly. The moon could not be seen though. _In a month, I will be like the moon. _She thought as she went back to sit at her desk.


	10. Demonstration

A short one, just remember to not assume things just yet. Nothing is as it seems...

* * *

Chapter 10—Demonstration

Darien didn't think that it was even possible. He had talked to thousands of people, asking them where Serena was. _None_ of them knew. How the heck did no one know where their number one star lived? In America, everyone knew where the stars lived, but here…no way, that would be an invasion of privacy. _Stupid people,_ Darien accused them.

He sat fuming on the park bench waiting for the bus. There was no way that he was walking all the way back to Mina's house; it was just too far away. He was so bored. He had gone to the park to sit on their bench, but the bench and everything around it had been taken away. He had gone to Andrew's diner to sit and talk, but it had changed so drastically since he used to mock Serena in it. Everything in Tokyo had changed. It was all supposed to be for the better, but for him it was all actually worse. He like things the way they used to be. He had loved the way things used to be…before he threw it all away, before he moved to America, before he gave up on Serena. Things were supposed to have been better in America, and for a time they were. He had seen everything that there was to see in New York. He was the biggest heart doctor in the world. He had a flat in the Upper East Side, he was the highest paid doctor in the city, and yet he still wasn't happy. He was always happy in Japan, even when Serena was furious at him, at least he could still see her, even if it was from down the street or only as Sailor Moon. He was content with that until it had gotten to be too much and he left.

Now here he was again, considering leaving. It was worse than it ever had been.

"Darien, is that you?"

Darien jerked out of his thoughts when he heard his name called. He watched as a blond haired boy came up to him. He looked familiar, but if anyone recognized him from ten years ago, there was no way he would recognize any of them.

"Do I know you?"

"Not as well as you knew my sister, but I always looked up to you."

"Sammy?" At the boy's nod, Darien stood up to embrace him. "Oh my goodness, Sammy! Wow, it's been forever. How have you been?"

"I've been good. I'm second in my class at Tokyo School for Gifted Children."

"You and your sister…"

"Hey, you look lonely, I was just on my way home if you want to go."

Darien took it as his one in a million chance and jumped up. "Yeah, that would be great! Do you have a car?"

"Yeah, Serena bought it for me, but only because the bus doesn't go to the mansion. She prefers it that way."

"I'll bet." Darien followed Sammy to his car. It was a simple red Chevrolet Cobalt. Darien looked at it warily. It was a bit small.

"Don't worry, this is American made. Chevy was the first car Serena got in America. She had this one and the white one she drives shipped over. It's lasted for two years going everywhere. It'll carry you." Sammy was still laughing as he got into the driver's seat. The door unlocked for Darien. He saw Sammy, starring at him. _Serena is worth it._

Darien slowly got into the car. It was comfortable, but he was still scared out of his mind. He closed his eyes and prayed that he would make it to Serena's house.

"Hey, you hungry? I have some brownies." Sammy enticed Darien to eating the chocolate snack.

"Where did you get this? It's delicious."

"Serena mailed it to me, as a congratulations for completing my junior year of high school. She probably makes the best food I've ever tasted." Sammy made a face. It looked like he was dreaming of the food his sister would make for him. Darien just looked at the brownie in his hand. He hoped that she didn't send Sammy to pick him up. With the way, she and Rai were acting for all he knew it could have been poisoned. Darien put the treat down.

"I thought that you would be graduating this year." Darien stated, referring to the fact that Sammy said only eleventh grade.

"I was supposed to be."

"Well, what happened?"

"When Serena graduated college, my mother died in a car accident on the way to the airport to watch Serena's college recital. My dad started to drink really badly. He broke four of my ribs and my left thigh. I was put into the hospital for a long time. Serena was always calling me and checking up on me. I knew she had a business though, so I never asked for her to come and get me. After the second time I was admitted into the hospital for the same broken bones, she bought the mansion and moved us both into it. She let me pretty do whatever I wanted, but she was always home whenever I was. I filed a restraining order against my dad as soon as I turned sixteen, and Serena supported me the entire way. Because of the times in the hospital though, I was set back a year."

The rest of the half an hour car ride to the mansion was spent in silence. Sammy wasn't really thinking of anything except to impress Darien. He had always looked up to the man. When Serena had gone away to school, he had missed seeing Darien around the house the most. Darien was surprised at how much Serena had changed. She was popular, she had short brown hair, she could cook, she was rich…he wondered how much everything else had changed. Her face was stunned when he had seen her. It looked as if she was remembering all of the bad memories, all of the times he had hurt her. It broke his heart to think that he had hurt her so much that all she could think about when she saw him was pain. Darien's mind rebelled against him and he couldn't take it anymore. Stopping his brain from thinking anymore horrible thoughts, Darien decided to just look out the window. They were passing fields and farm houses.

Worriedly, he cast a glance over at Sammy. Sammy was intent and just continued to drive on. Darien continued to worry until Sammy finally turned down a paved road. Trees were everywhere, covering up the end of the road, but they continued to drive. It took about five minutes before they had finally passed all the trees. On the other side of them was a monstrous mansion. It was three stories high, with a trillion windows and a billion chimneys. It was a mansion out of the story books. There was a fountain in the middle of a small round about. There was a butler waiting to open the door for them; then there was another butler waiting to take their coats off for them.

"Welcome to Greenich House, or as Serena calls it—the mansion." Sammy said to Darien, laughing at the expression on his face.

"Sammy, you're home!" Serena came running up to her brother. They hugged, and Serena started talking about everything that was going on, until she noticed Darien. When she centered her attention fully on him, he took a step back because of the anger in her eyes. "Sammy, why don't you go to your room for a little while so Darien and I can catch up a little."

Sammy took the suggestion to heart, hoping as he ran up the stairs that Serena would forgive Darien, and they would get back together. He cast one more glance down towards them, figuring that it would never happen.

"Hello, Serena."

"Don't you give me that crap! I have every right to be mad at you! You came into _my_ house, invading _my _privacy." As Serena talked her necklace started to glow a red color. It scared him, until he remembered that mood rings and necklaces were especially popular in America.

"Serena, calm down—" Darien started to speak, but then suddenly his voice was cut off. He grabbed at his throat as if he could get his voice back again.

"Do not mess with me, Darien. I am not the same person that I once was." Darien looked at Serena. He didn't understand why he couldn't talk. His voice was perfectly fine until a moment ago. _Why can't I speak?_

"Serena, let him go." Serena turned her attention to Rai, who was rushing down the stairs.

"There's—" the word escaped Darien's mouth before he could stop it. He looked from girl to girl wondering what was going on. Serena looked back at him. Anger was still in her eyes. _What the heck just happened? Did Serena do that?_


	11. Proof

Chapter 11—Proof

"What just happened?" Darien was ignored as Rai and Serena finished having a private conversation. Serena hadn't spoken much only a sentence or two, but Rai sure gave her a mouth full.

"How could you do that?" Rai screamed at Serena.

"Do not scream at me Rai." Serena said with clenched teeth. "He is in my house."

"But how could you let it happen? You're supposed to be in control of those powers!"

"I am in control. I wanted Darien to stop, and he stopped."

"Serena…" Rai said, exasperated.

"So, Serena did that to me?"

"Shut up, Darien!" Both of them screamed at the same time. Darien wisely shut his mouth. Serena clenched her forehead.

"I'm going back to the office." Serena said. Neither Rai nor Darien tried to stop her as she walked out the front door. They didn't speak until they no longer heard her car on the drive.

"Wanna explain to me now?" Darien asked Rai, hoping he'd have better luck with her. She obviously wasn't too keen on the idea, though. She turned towards him, and he could almost see the fire around her.

"It's your fault. It's always been your fault." She lashed out at him then ran up the stairs. Since he guessed he was going to her room, he didn't follow her.

"I need to call the others." Darien wasn't talking to anybody in particular. In fact, the butler stared at him like he was insane. "Where are we?" He asked the butler. The butler shrugged. He signed something to him, but Darien had no idea what he said. _No wonder no one has any idea where this place is. The people she hired to work here are mutes._

He picked up his cell phone and quickly dialed Mina's number.

"Hello?" Mina answered.

"Hi, it's Darien. I found out where Serena lives, but something weird is going on."

"Something weird with where she lives or with her?"

"With her. You guys need to get here as fast as you can." Darien, remembering each turn Sammy had taken, relayed all the information he could get out.

"We're going to stop by Lida's parent's house to pick up Luna, then we'll meet you there." Hanging up Darien decided to walk through the house. The butler was always on his tail. Forgetting him, Darien went into each room, not stopping until he had reached Serena's home office.

oOo

Serena finally reached her office. She couldn't believe that she had let him get to her like that. He never would have found her if it hadn't been for Sammy. He never would have known about her powers if Sammy hadn't driven him home. She loved her brother to death, but sometimes she was ready to kill the brat. Now she was finally ready to admit the truth.

When her crystal broke, Selene had given her god powers. Serena had really good control of them normally, but lately she had been thinking too much on Darien and the others being back in Japan. Of late, her god powers ranged from being able to shut doors from across the room to being able to go into other people's dreams. Now she was able to stop people from talking. The only down side with that though was that they knew that they weren't talking. Selene hadn't realized the fact, but when she said the spell, all of the goddess around her and Selene had unknowingly and unwillingly given Serena a tiny portion of their own powers. Because Selene was the one calling for the spell, Serena was given the obvious ability to withdraw power from the moon.

Nyx controlled the darkness, letting Serena have the power to make it dark either physically or mentally. She didn't really like doing the mental one though, it got too confusing after everything was said and done. Besides that the poor soul who she did it to, remained completely and utterly stupid. She just didn't have it in her to teach people all that they needed to know. She felt bad for the people she had done it to, and she wouldn't do it again.

Eris, the beautiful goddess of chaos, was there too. Serena got the ability to be able to cause strife and chaos in the lives of the people around her. She had to think about doing it though. If she did cause strife, it wasn't of her own accord.

Athena was the goddess of wisdom, and had given her much.

Darrienia had given sweet dreams to Serena, but unwillingly she had also given Serena the power to be able to go into other people's dreams. When she had first gotten the power, she had gone into a couple people's dreams. They were all confusing though. In one of the person's dreams, the poor man was getting chased around by a huge ball of yarn. Needless to say, she didn't go into people's dreams unless she was the one causing them, just like she had done with Darien, last night.

Fortuna had given her wealth, but she had also given Serena the ability to bring good luck with everything that she did, which is probably the only reason why her band was such a huge hit.

Aphrodite had given her beauty, but that was all that had really come out of it. Serena remembered Aphrodite from her time on the moon, before her mother died. Aphrodite was the reason blondes were given a bad name. She had to be the stupidest of the gods, so there wasn't much there to give.

The only goddess who hadn't given anything was Kali. Kali, the fearsome goddess of time and death, wasn't near Serena when the god powers were given to her. The spoiled, selfish goddess knew what would happen if Serena was given her powers. Serena didn't mind at all. She didn't want to control time. Each time Serena was in a stressful state that matter was more evident, especially considering that each time she was stressed she got a new power.

Serena closed her eyes. She needed a drink. She didn't drink alcohol, but only because she had too many secrets that had to remain secret. When she opened her eyes, floating across the room was the bottle of water she had been thinking about getting up for. She screamed, as she did it dropped.

"Miss Tsukino, what's wrong?" Serena's secretary burst into the room. Serena could just imagine how it looked, a bottle of water that was rolling across the floor, nowhere near the desk where her boss was sitting.

"Nothing, get out." Serena waved her hands toward the door. She was hardly ever rude. One of her jobs to help pay for Nagasaki International had been a secretary, and she had absolutely hated it. Her boss was rude and cruel, making her work every weekend and every holiday. She had to work even when he was off golfing, too. It had been alright though because she had spit in his coffee each morning before she had given it to him. Because of that, she had been scared of getting her secretary riled up with her, so she was always kind. _I'm not going to have that coffee she brings to me for a week or so,_ she thought as the secretary left.

Finally, her gaze rested on the water bottle. She had been praying that what she had seen was just imaginary. Perhaps it could all be explained by…someone was just messing with her. Needing to know if her brain was playing tricks on her or not, Serena got up and walked over to the toppled water bottle that had finally stopped rolling. She knelt down and picked it up. No strings were on it. Nothing was attached to it; it was as if she had just dropped it. Another thought suddenly came to her.

Eris was able to teleport.

oOo

Finally, the others arrived at the mansion. Darien was still in Serena's private office. It was like the Oval Office of the President of the US. It was circular, had three computers, over a thousand books, and five flat screen televisions. There was a piano and right beside it was a guitar. The room was amazingly clean for Serena. She had a couple of papers scattered on the piano and even more on her desk, but other than those it was all locked up in her desk. He turned on the televisions; all but one had 'waiting for signal' screens, showing they were conference TVs. The one that didn't only had news on. _This isn't like Serena at all, but then again what do I know about her now?_

"Darien, you didn't tell you that her house was so freaking huge!" Mina accused as she followed the butler into Serena's office. Everyone was quiet as they looked around. They, too, were in amazement.

"This is so weird…"Mina walked over to the vast windows that over saw the grounds. There was an Olympic sized swimming pool and right beside it was a tennis court. Lida was looking at the music Serena was currently writing. It all seemed so tragic:

"Who made up all the rules?

We follow them like fools,

Believe them to be true,

Don't care to think them through.

I'm sorry, so sorry,

I'm sorry, we do this…"

The music went on, but Lida didn't want to read anymore. She felt guilty invading Serena's personal space. Ami was looking at all of the books. She had medical books, cook books, nonfiction books, and fiction books. It was Ami's heaven.

"This doesn't seem like Serena at all…" Luna commented.

"Did you honestly think that she would remain the same after ten years?" Everyone flipped around to look at the hidden door near the windows that Rai had come through. "No shoes." Rai said holding up her hands.

"How are you, Rai?"

"I am well. Right now—" An alarm sounded throughout the house and grounds. Everyone looked around scared. "Don't worry it's nothing. Another just escaped is all."

"Another what just escaped?" Mina questioned.

"When was the last time you guys transformed?"

"A long time ago…why? What's happening?"

"Well, without Serena here, we'll have to take care of it."

"_Take care of what?!"_ Mina finally yelled at Rai.

"That." Rai pointed out the window. There was a small youma looking up at the window. He was grinning, pointing up at Rai.

"Did you say escaped," gulped Darien.

"Yeah, while you guys were gone, Serena got a little obsessed. Each youma that showed up, she wouldn't kill them. Instead she put them in a jail sail where there is a constant noise playing that keeps them behind bars. Sooner or later they go insane. Serena's had the most trouble with that one. He keeps escaping, and when he does, Serena is the only one that can put him back into his holding cell. Right now we just have to keep him contained in Serena's yard."

"Is that why she chose this place?"

"You mean besides the fact that it's away from all of her fans? Yeah…Are you guys ready to transform?"

"Mars Star Power!"

"Venus Star Power!"

"Jupiter Star Power!"

"Mercury Star Power!"

Instantly transforming, the Scouts ran out of the office, Tuxedo Mask close on their tail. The youma was waiting for them.

"You not who I want." He said pointing in each of the girls faces.

"Why didn't she kill these guys?" Tuxedo Mask asked.

"All she told me was that 'she had greater plans for them.'" Sailor Mars exaggerated Serena's voice, then shouted: "Mars…Flame…Sniper!" Her powers had increased by so much; she easily hit four targets around the youma, thus encircling them in fire.

"What greater plans could she have for a youma?"

"Well…you should all the ones in her basement. Not only are they locked in cages with a high pitch noise sealing them in, there are like a thousand passwords to just get in. I've learned not to worry about what she has going on. You should probably learn the same useful skill." The youma was clearly mad at Sailor Mars.

"Soul…Fire…" The youma screamed. Suddenly, before the youma had time to finish his attack, everyone was out of the circle of fire.

"What do you think you're doing?" The sky was turning as black as Serena's mood.

"How did you get here?" Luna asked. Serena looked down at the black cat, sorely tempted to kick it away from her. For years all she had was Artemis, now this little cat wanted back.

"Get ova here." The youma was screaming at Serena. She just rolled her eyes. She was gone suddenly. They were just looking at her and the next moment she was gone. She appeared before the youma again. It was as if she regenerated herself in a cloud of purple smoke and strings.*

"How do you keep escaping?" She calmly asked the monster.

"You let out now."

"You know I can't do that. She sent you to me for a reason. I have to keep you until I know that reason."

"I no use to you anymore. I told all know."

"See now that's where I don't believe you." Serena grabbed the youma by the hand. They walked over to the fountain, and she put him onto the top, raising him up without ever even touching him.

"Now do you see what I meant by she's acting weird?" Darien whispered. It was so quiet, even Serena, over one hundred feet away, heard him. She just smiled. The youma was slowly lowered back into his jail cell. When the youma was put back into his cell, Serena turned around to the fire. In the seconds she stared at it, the flames diminished. She looked back towards them.

The next thing they knew, she was gone.

The song is **They** by Jem.

*It's kind of hard to describe this. I was thinking of Eris on Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. If you want to see what I was thinking, look it up on YouTube.

I own nothing.


	12. Her Thoughts

I don't own any of the bands or songs I used.

Songs Bands

**Kryptonite** 3 Doors Down

**Save You **Simple Plan

Chapter 12—Her Thoughts

"That was so cool!" Serena knew she probably shouldn't be happy about being able to teleport, but…_Come on, I teleported. That was way cool!_ Gleefully, she danced around the office once she had teleported back. Not only could she teleport, she could also levitate things. _This is like a Star Wars movie._ She wasn't too sure she liked comparing herself to Star Wars though. She had always hated that movie. Now everyone knew that something was seriously wrong with her. She already had enough problems.

"Miss Tsukino?" Serena's secretary knocked on the door and came in.

"Yes, come on in, Rose," bade Serena.

"I just received an invitation to the Entertainers Masquerade Ball."

"Crap!" Serena had totally forgotten about the annoying event. The Entertainers Masquerade Ball was an event where entertainers from all over the world gathered together to dance and dine. It was the only thing Serena hated about being who she was. The fans she could handle, the crazy people asking for her autograph, she could handle them all. It was just this ball. She despised more than anything she had ever hated—more than her 'Meatball Head' nickname.

"What answer would you like me to give?"

Serena thought about it for a moment. "Say, yes, but also say that I will bring five guests." If she was going to be miserable so would her friends. "Any other things?"

"A couple American bands wished for you to write songs for them." Rose handed Serena all of the files. Serena had desperately wanted to try her new power to levitate, but she figured Rose would run from the building screaming. Serena flipped through them.

"Ew—Metallica? They're like fifty years old now! I will _not_ write for them. They should have retired years ago." Serena flipped through another file. "I can write for Simple Plan, and…" another went down on her desk, "…Three Doors Down, but definitely not Metallica. Don't they have a song writer? Why are they asking me?" This was probably her favorite part of the industry she was in. Every band in the world wanted her to write their music, but only because she wrote all of her own songs and each of her songs made it into the number one position on each list in the world. _Once again, thank you Fortuna._ "I'll have the songs ready by the end of the week."

"Yes, ma'am." Rose had turned to walk out the door when a sudden thought caused Serena to yell for her to stop.

"You never told me when the ball is?"

"Oh…It is scheduled for the twenty-ninth of June." Everything stopped for Serena. Her heart plummeted. The twenty-ninth was when—No! She wasn't going to think about it. She still had a month to get everything done.

"Thank you, Rose." Rose turned to walk out the door at Serena's dismissal. It was only June 4. She could get everything done that she needed to get done. Serena sat down at her desk to start writing the music she needed to. She opened up the music writing program on her computer and started debating which notes to put on. With guy bands it was a little easier to write music for; the girl bands always wanted what they wanted when they wanted it. The guy bands were generally not so picky.

She had televisions in her office because she would often get inspiration from what was on them, which was where she got her inspiration for Three Doors Down:

"You call me strong, you call me weak  
But still your secrets I will keep  
You took for granted all the times  
I never let you down  
You stumbled in and bumped your head  
If not for me then you'd be dead  
I picked you up and put you back on solid ground."

Serena stopped. She never intentionally placed lyrics about herself into the music she was writing for other people, but it had just happened this time. She wasn't sure if she wanted everyone to know if all the music she wrote was about her. Maybe she should make it about something else, like…what's a superhero that has a lot of secrets.

Batman wasn't a true superhero; he was just kind of a smart, rich guy.

There was no way a toxic spider could turn someone into a web slinging and swinging superhero, so Spidey was out of the question. Not to mention, Serena hated spiders.

Superman was the only true superhero. He was from another planet so it was believable even if they planet didn't really exist. Serena knew; she looked it up. Well, Three Doors Down was going to get an obscure song about Superman and his kryptonite.

It took a while, but slowly the song conformed so that it read as if superman was writing the song. She would worry about the guitar and drums at another time, when she wasn't so tired. She started to write Simple Plan's song as soon as she finished.

"That if you fall, stumble down

I'll pick you up off the ground

If you lose faith in you

I'll give you strength to pull through

Tell me you won't give up,

Cause I'll be waiting if you fall.

You know I'll be there for you.

If only I could find the answer, to take it all away."

There it was again. Serena had let her feelings slip through her barriers. She was always doing this of late. There was a difference with this song though. Serena had meant for the other one to be about herself, but this one was a tribute towards Darien and her friends. She should have known better than to have started writing the music for this so late. She had finished her first song at midnight. The papers she had written for it were scattered across the floor as she had decided what she liked and what she didn't like. By the time she finished the song for Simple Plan, it was four in the morning.

_Thank God for coffee._ During her stay at Julliard, she was constantly up until four in the morning writing music for her recital pieces. That had been the bane of her existence. She had taken up drinking coffee just so she would be able to stay awake during her classes. So she drank coffee almost every day, but she needed to have loads of sugar in it, otherwise it was too bitter. Today was one such day where she would be on a sugar high until she got home and into her bed.

Slowly she drove home thinking about inviting the others to stay at her house. Maybe they would be safer that way. The monsters she kept in her house weren't exactly bad; they were just annoying. Rai thought that she was crazy, the others probably did too. _That doesn't matter right now. All that matters is keeping them safe until the thirtieth. _

Serena got out of her car noticing that the others were still here. She pinched the bridge of her nose. She was just thinking about letting them stay. Apparently they had already thought it through—without her permission. _Well, might as well let them stay._ Serena quietly let herself into the house. She walked up to Artemis—the butler. She had turned him into a human because she didn't want people thinking that she was talking to herself. She rather liked that power of being a god. It was only once that she had turned someone into an animal. The woman deserved it. She acted like a cow, and she got the great privilege of being one. Serena smiled at the memory.

"Hi, Serena." Artemis said.

"Hey, where are they?"

"In the living room. They fell asleep a while ago watching a movie."

"Did you talk to them?"

"No."

"Why not? I'll bet Luna wants to talk to you."

"They abandoned you."

"You did, too, at first."

"I know, and I will ever be sorry, for not believing you."

"Please. I turned you into a human, for my own benefit. You willingly followed me, even though you didn't know why I was acting so crazy."

"You had spent too much time alone already. I couldn't let you be alone a moment longer."

"You know," Serena started, "I bet you I can turn you back into a cat." Artemis' eyes lit up.

"You can?" He narrowed his eyes. "How would you do that? Will it hurt? How do you know you can do it?"

"I can teleport now!" Serena smiled and nodded her head happily. "I can levitate stuff too. I bet you I could do it, and make it fairly painless."

"Fairly? NO!"

"Oh, come on…Please?" Serena stuck out her bottom lip and folded her hands together.

"I'd rather you not."

"Artemis?" Luna came out of the living room. She had heard her lover's voice and wanted to see him again. "Serena did you hear Artemis' voice?" Luna knew she was talking, but since the butler was mute anyway. It wasn't as if he could tell anyone.

Serena's eyes went wide, as she heard Luna's voice. She smiled suddenly; the butler shook his head, suddenly scared. He raised his arms in front of him. Serena hugged him, whispering softly.

"This is for you, Artemis. You'll thank me one day." Before she knew it, she was hugging air. The butler's clothing ended up in a pile on the floor. The white cat was just walking out of the clothing. Luna smiled and ran over to him.

"Where did you come from?" Apparently she didn't see the heap of clothes on the floor. Serena picked them up and put them on the stairs, near where Artemis had been leaning. Serena sat on the stairs for a little while, just watching them reunite. They were about to walk into the living room, when Artemis ran up to her and jumped onto her lap. He whispered in her ear,

"Thank you." Serena smiled and gave him a hug.

"Anytime." She watched as they went into the living room.

"I saw what you did." Serena stood up and turned around at Darien's voice. He hadn't been in the living room.

"Where did you come from?"

"The bathroom. I didn't know that the butler could talk, let alone that he was really Artemis. You turned him back so that he and Luna could be together." Darien walked over to her. He sat on the stair where she had just vacated and tugged on her hand to sit down next to him. When she did, she sat down stiffly. So stiffly, she was ready to break. "Do you think that we could be together again?"

Serena was quiet before she finally replied, "why do you want to?"


	13. His Thoughts

Chapter 13—His Thoughts

_Why do you want to? _Serena's question rang in Darien's mind. He thought she was joking, but her eyes showed that she was perfectly serious. The question had merit. Did he want her back so that the future that they had seen could happen? Did he want her because of the past they had?

"Why do you want me back?" Serena asked thinking that he had misunderstood her.

"I want you back because I love you." Darien said quietly.

"Do you love me, or the girl I used to be?" Serena's eyes showed sadness.

"I loved the old you, Serena. I loved the princess on the moon. I loved the queen of the future. No matter how much you have changed in the past ten years, I will always love you." Darien watched as his words sunk in. He saw it as they hit home. Not being able to wait any longer, he leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips.

The kiss didn't stop there. Before either of them realized it, Serena was hauled onto Darien's lap without ever breaking the kiss. The kissed turned hotter and hotter. Darien thought that he was in heaven; Serena thought she was in hell.

"No!" She cried turning her face away from him. "I can't lose you again. You'll just die on me again. I can't do it!" Serena started to cry.

Darien pulled her into him, so that her face was cushioned against his chest. _You'll just die on me again…_What did she mean that he would die on her again? Serena continued to sob on his chest. _No matter what happens Serena, I will _never_ leave you! I promise. I will always be here for you._ Serena's sobs started to lessen. Darien's shirt was wet, but honestly he didn't really care. For the past ten years, he dreamed of her. He had dreamed of them holding hands and talking. He had dreamed of them kissing. He had dreamed of them in his apartment. His dreams had haunted him. They were the only reason he had even come back to Tokyo.

_What if she dies, Darien? Would you be able to live with yourself if she died and you weren't there to save her? Would you be able to carry on? Would you like knowing that all you had were memories and pictures? Would you like knowing that you would never be able to see her again? You were happy living in New York because you knew that you could go to Tokyo and see her anytime you wish. What if she died before you ever get back to Tokyo? What would you do to stop her fate? Would you stop it? _

Darien got a chill. The dream was always the same, but only in the month of June. It started on the first and continued up until her birthday. He had been expecting them while he was here, but none had come. Darien continued to hold her, thinking of the questions the person in his dream had asked.

_What if she dies?_ Darien would never have been able to live with himself if that had happened. He would have committed suicide in the most horrifying way possible. He would have been dead just seconds after hearing that Serena had died. Every day, Darien would check the Tokyo papers, searching in the obituaries. Each day was the same, Serena hadn't died. Holding Serena now made him think of the possibility of forever losing her, to only have memories and pictures.

He tightened his grip on her. He wanted her. He wanted her, the memories, and the pictures. He wanted it all. He had had it once, but he stupidly gave it all up. He had everything that he had ever wanted, and he gave it all up, just because there had been a lapse in communication between him and Serena. A lapse he would forever regret.

"Serena…" Darien called her name when he heard her sobs stop.

"Yes." Her voice was quiet. Her face was still pressed into his chest.

"Do you remember that time in the park where the girls and I kind of…" Darien was at a loss for words.

"Ganged up on me, and I told you guys that I have always protected you and that I was sick of you guys always yelling at me and that Sailor Moon and Serenity could go to hell for all I care? Yeah, I remember it. Why?"

"I was just thinking. You had said that you had something to tell us. What were you going to tell us?" Darien waited for her answer, but when she was quiet for a few minutes, he squeezed her.

"I was going to tell you that I had gotten accepted into Nagasaki International."

Darien nodded his head. "When did you start applying for the school?"

She gave a little laugh. "I never applied for it. When I went on that three day vacation to Hakata, a talent scout found me singing. I auditioned the next day; I got accepted immediately after that. I had returned home to tell you guys that I would be leaving the next week." Her hand went from her lap to clutch at her necklace. Darien figured that he really wouldn't be able to ask her anymore questions tonight.

Serena looked up at him. Her makeup was smeared and running. It gave him an excuse. His hand reached up and brushed away the black rolling down her face. She jerked in response.

"Your makeup was running."

She started to cry again. Letting go of him and her necklace, she wiped at her eyes. She sniffled and tried to get up. Darien thought she was going to try, though, and tightened his grip on her.

"Darien let me up." She sounded desperate.

"Where is your bedroom?" Her eyes widened. _That didn't come out right_.

"No! We can't!" She started to breathe heavily. The tears rushed out more and more by the bucket full.

"You need to sleep, Serena. I was just going to sleep in there with you. Sleep is all we're going to do."

"I need to work still."

"Work? Serena it's almost six in the morning. Work can wait until later. We're going to bed now. So either tell me where your bedroom is or I'll find the first bedroom with sheets, and we'll sleep in that one." Because of Darien's words, a stare down ensued. As always, Darien was the winner.

"It's upstairs third door on the left." Serena said it and held her head low. She tried to get up again to show him, but he held her firmly against him. In one swift move Darien picked her and himself up from the stairs. Holding his precious treasure, he carried her up the stairs and in the direction she had specified. He lowered her so that she would open the door for him. He continued into the room, still holding her. He stopped in the middle of the room.

There were pictures everywhere. They all but layered the walls. Most were of him and the scouts. They were the pictures that Serena had taken. One particular picture caught his eye. He lowered her to the ground to allow her to do the normal routine she had to get ready for bed and walked over to the wall to examine it.

He didn't know when it had been taken or where, but he didn't remember it. It was him and Serena kissing just outside of her parent's gate. He never kissed her there. He had always been too scared of her dad to even touch her a block away from her house. Each time he did, he felt as if he was being watched. He would never have kissed her that close to her home. It looked like it was a pretty passionate kiss too. Serena wasn't standing on her toes, but rather Darien was holding her up against him. Serena's legs were wrapped around his waist; her arms around his neck. This was most definitely a kiss that would be remembered. Whipping around Darien looked for Serena.

She was already asleep in the huge bed, if it could even be called a bed. The thing she slept in was huge. It could hold at least twenty people with enough room to breathe. Still trying to remember the kiss, Darien walked over to the bed. Instead of getting ready for bed, she had just climbed in, still wearing the mini skirt and tee shirt she had worn to work. Taking off his shirt, Darien climbed into the bed. Serena slept peacefully in the middle, so he crawled over to her. He climbed beneath the covers, anxious to feel her sleeping against him again. He pulled her closer to him. Serena willingly came. She pushed him on his back, and all but climbed on top of him.

This was going to be the death of him. Her leg situated itself between both of his, and her arm had come to rest on his bare chest. Her face was on his shoulder. Her warm body quickly warmed his own. The entire time he was thinking that she didn't know what she was doing to him; she was asleep. It didn't matter that she didn't know her leg was rubbing up and down against his own, or that her hand was almost drawing circles on his chest. It was the fact that it was her.

_This is heaven,_ Darien thought finally falling asleep.


	14. Shopping

This chapter is going to be a little confusing at the beginning, bear with me. I do know what I wrote, and what is going to be the next chapter.

I don't own: Mercedes-Benz, Saab, or Bugatti Veyron (oh how I want one though)

No putting down the poem. I hate writing poetry so I probably sucks.

* * *

Chapter 14—Shopping

Darien woke up to a cold and empty bed. He had the best dreams the night before. He hadn't wanted them to end. He looked at the alarm clock near Serena's side of the bed. It was ten o'clock. He had never slept this late before. Quickly, Darien jumped out of the bed and pulled on his shirt. He was about to walk out of the room when he remembered the picture he had seen the night before. Slowly he turned around to look at the picture. He wanted to know where it had come from. He would have remembered kissing her and being that close to her house. He walked over to the wall where it hung and picked it up. Carefully taking it out of the frame it was in, he looked at the back.

"Last kiss. 5th round."

Fifth round? What the heck was that supposed to mean? There was no date; there was nothing that would tell him when it was taken. And it was taken. There was Kodak all over the back. He knew that it wasn't their last kiss. There last kiss hadn't been in front of her parent's house. It had been in January. This picture was clearly taken in the spring because of the cherry tree blossoming in the background. He remembered their last kiss like it was yesterday.

_"I love you." Serena had whispered into his ear. She had rose up on her tip toes and kissed his mouth gently. _

_ "Serena…" He had tried to kiss her back, but she had already turned away from him. He watched her as she was swayed down the street, ever walking away from him. He had just told her that he wanted everything to slow down a bit more. She was always in a hurry lately, so he just asked her if they could slow it down. She had acted like he had asked her to stop everything entirely. Her face had frozen, along with everything she had been saying. She had just stared at him like he was crazy. He then took her shopping and a little walk through the park, they had come to a stop in front of Rai's temple, where the meeting was to take place that night. Serena had kissed him and walked away, away from the temple. Needless to say the meeting hadn't happened that night._

When Darien had gone to her house the next morning, she wasn't there. Neither was anyone in her family. They had all left somewhere. No one had ever really figured out where. That was the last time that he had seen her though. Whatever this picture was from, it hadn't happened.

Darien put the picture back and looked around the room. There were tons of pictures of them kissing—including the one he remembered. He took it out of the frame it was hanging in.

"Last kiss. 9th round."

Whatever Serena was doing, it was annoying. Without looking around anymore, Darien threw the picture down and walked out of her room towards the dining room he had found the day before. Something caught his eye as he walked out though. It was a poem written in Serena's hand:

"A hundred years, from the day it all went wrong,

And thirteen years in each round,

The days it took to make one strong,

The days it took to leave the ground.

You will persist through them all,

Only to come back again and again.

If you can live through each maul,

Each attack that had been in vain.

The monster that haunts you,

That drives you to the moon,

Will be but a memory passing through."

oOo

"Hey you guys?" Darien finally made it down into the dining room, where everyone was still sitting.

"Yeah, what is it?" Asked Lida.

"I'm-I'm—never mind. Where's Serena?"

"She had a couple video conferences with her v.p. in America and England this morning at eight. The conferences are still going on though; she'll be in her office." Artemis was sitting on top of the table next to Luna.

"You mean to tell me, she came home, slept for two hours, and got up to take a video conference?" Darien was astounded.

"She actually only slept for an hour. She had to get everything ready for the conferences." Darien put his head into his hands. This was just too weird. First it was those pictures, next it was the depressing poem, now finally he knew Serena was going insane. She had never gotten up before eight. She was never early. She had never slept only for an hour and then was up and running before he had even gotten up.

"She's in her office here, right?"

"Yeah, she said something about not wanting to leave." Darien grabbed an apple and walked into her office. She was talking to a red head on one of her televisions. It was quiet as he walked into the office, but just seconds after the yelling started again.

"Look, Emily, I told you not to do that little concert venture." Serena calmly told the red head. Her eyes were shooting sparks though. "Because you did it anyway, now you have to live with the repercussions."

"It was one concert; there was no way that it should have cost over two million dollars just to set the thing up!"

"Okay, let's start this again. How much money did you lose exactly?" Serena gripped her temples with one hand.

"I didn't lose the money, Serena! It went missing! I spent $100,000 on the concert, but the rest disappeared. I've checked the books about fifty times. There is no record for any of the money. We should have it, but we don't!" The girl, Emily, started to cry. "It just disappeared…"

"Who told you that it was gone?"

"My accountant."

"The concert was over three months ago, why wasn't he watching everything that was going on?"

"Don't worry about him. He isn't the one with a problem at the moment."

"Do you know anyone in your branch that has bought a really expensive car in the past three months?"

Serena waited while Emily checked her papers. "Three CEO's have. One bought a used Mercedes SL Class. Another bought a Saab Aero X. The last bought an '06 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 ." Darien whistled under his breath.

Serena made a face. "Go with the last one."

"Why not the one who bought the Mercedes?"

"Because even an '06 Bugatti is worth around $2 million."

"I didn't know that…how did you know that?"

"I have a little brother who is obsessed with cars. His favorite is a Bugatti."

"Oh…okay." Emily still looked a little confused. Serena shook her head.

"I have to go, Emily."

"I'm sorry, Serena." With those words the television screen went back to the blue screen saying it was waiting for input.

"What can I do for you, Darien?" Serena asked finally turning around. Darien was finally allowed to focus on her instead of the conversation that was happening before. She looked so good. She was wearing blue jeans and a red sleeveless top.

"I read a really odd poem in your room just a couple minutes ago. I was wondering if you could explain it." Her face went pale.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Serena turned around to go sit at her desk. She had been standing up the entire time through the conferences.

"Oh, I think you do." Darien said walking over to the desk chair and putting his hands on both of the arm rest to prevent her from leaving.

"I'm a song writer, Darien. I have tons of poems all over the place." Serena was steadily getting more and more worried.

"This isn't a song, Serena." Darien said. He was going to get the answer out of her.

"How would you know?"

"It only had eleven lines and it talked about monsters and the moon. I have a feeling that you didn't write this."

"Serena, what are we doing today?" Rai asked as she walked into the office.

"Don't you know how to knock?" Darien asked, annoyed.

"Well, I do, but I heard Serena and you talking so I figured that the conference was over. Besides, you didn't knock either. So what are we doing today?"

Serena smiled. "Well, I figured we could go shopping for dresses."

"We're going to shopping?" Mina's sonic hearing, heard Serena's response all the way in the dining room. Serena only raised her eyebrows.

"What are we going shopping for?" Lida asked as she walked into the office.

"Well, I got an invitation to a masquerade ball last night. I just figured that we could go shopping for dresses while Darien got a tux."

She looked straight into Darien's eyes as if challenging him. "This conversation isn't over." He told her.

oOo

"I really hate shopping with you." Rai said as they looked through dress racks.

"Why?" Serena asked honestly.

"You closed down half of the stupid stores just to go shopping. You haven't even bought anything yet, either." Serena had actually gone to the people who owned the mall, paid them everything they would have lost, and closed down the mall. Rai had only gone shopping with Serena on one other occasion, and it was almost as bad. The other time she had let the mall stay open, but there were fans always surrounding them.

"Would you rather have fans?"

"Well, at least the mall wouldn't be deserted."

"Oh, go buy your shoes." Serena walked over to look at all the dresses on a certain rack. She wanted on that wasn't like the others. She wanted one the covered her just enough to make Darien want to see more. She blushed. _I can't believe I'm actually thinking about this. _Last night's kiss was heavenly for her, but she knew what was going to happen. She knew that she was going to—

"Serena, how does this look?" It was Ami. Ami walked out of the dressing room wearing a beautiful, long aqua dress that had two layers that were shown. The sleeves were made out of lace that matched the bodice.

"You look gorgeous." Ami had long hair now, so it would be easier for her to do something with it. Serena walked over to the girl and grabbed all of her hair. She put it up in a simple bun and turned Ami towards the mirror. "Let me go get some shoes and a necklace for you."

Ami couldn't believe how she looked in the dress. Serena had done her hair simply, but it really made the dress look good. She twirled in front of the mirror watching as the dress floated slightly up and then landed perfectly back down. Finally, Serena came back with the necklace and shoes. The shoes were sliver and had a two inch heel with a strap going behind the foot. The same strap went to the toes to cross. Serena linked the necklace around Ami's throat. It was gorgeous. It was silver with a sapphire hanging down in the middle.

"Thank you, Serena." Serena smiled at her, then turned towards the woman helping them.

"We'll take everything she's wearing," she told the woman. When Ami went back into the changing room, Serena walked back to the dress racks and Darien came into the store.

"Did you get a tux?" She asked. His eyes were so dreamy.

"Yeah, are you gonna answer the question I asked you?" He still hadn't let it go yet.

"Serena!" Lida's cry came.

"Coming!" _Saved again_.

"I don't think I can do this." Lida said when she heard Serena walk into the changing room area.

"Of course you can. Come out and let me see you." Lida came out slowly. She was wearing a dark green dress with a drop waist and full skirt. The shirring on the gown made it really stand out. The beading on the bodice gave the gown a princess feel.

"It doesn't have any sleeves." Lida said.

"It's okay. You look gorgeous in it anyways. I had the lady get shoes for you and a necklace." The necklace was like Ami's except with an emerald hanging down. The shoes the woman got for her were silver ballet flats with a slight heel. Lida put the things on. The necklace took her attention away from the sleeveless-ness of her dress. She fingered it slightly and turned around in front of the mirror. As she did a smile slowly took over her mouth. Serena signaled the lady that they were buying Lida's ensemble too.

This time when Serena went back on the floor, she looked around for Darien. She was about to hide in the changing room when Mina yelled that she needed a new dress. Serena rolled her eyes. Mina had already tried on at least fifty dresses. Serena rolled her eyes at the lady, then went to find the ugliest dress in the entire store. She came back with a puke green mini dress. It had to be the ugliest thing Serena had ever seen, but it would cause Mina to realize that she was annoying everybody.

"Ew. Serena this dress has to be the ugliest dress I've ever seen." Mina complained.

"Then pick one of the other ones we already gave you."

"Which one should I pick?"

"The yellow one was nice."

"But I like the blue one."

"Then choose the blue one."

"But the green one was pretty, too."

"Just choose one." Serena rolled her eyes.

Finally after an hour and a half, they were making the final purchases. Rai had chosen black strap sandals to match the strapless ruby red dress she picked out. It had beading on the bust line as well as the waist and was tight all the way down to her hips. Her necklace was silver with a garnet gem hanging. Mina finally had chosen. She chose a satiny yellow dress that had rhinestones and spaghetti straps that crisscrossed in the back. She had taken another half an hour to finally settle on the gold, high heel goddess sandals to match. Serena was so annoyed she didn't even listen as Mina complained about the topaz on her necklace. It wasn't the actual shopping experience that had Serena so happy though. It was after.

Darien had grabbed her hand as they were walking to the parking lot. He didn't question her about the poem again, and they both went to sleep in Serena's room.


	15. Masquerade

You guys, enough with how I spell their names! I have met three people with the name of Ronnie. Each of them spells it differently—Roni, Ronnie, Ronny. I spelled their names differently because that is how I was taught to spell them in Japan. Deal with it.

The song is **Time of Dying** by Three Days Grace. I own neither band nor song.

* * *

Chapter 15—Masquerade

It had been a couple weeks since the shopping trip. Serena and Darien had gotten steadily closer. They normally slept in the same bed, but Serena never allowed them to do anything other than sleep. Darien had continued to ask about the poem, but Serena never answered him. Now it was the day of the masquerade, and Serena was still working.

She was really pacing though. It was going to happen tonight. The thing she had been dreading for ten years was going to happen. Rai walked into the room just as Serena put her face into her hands. Rai was the only one that she could really trust. She always came into the room just when she needed her to interrupt her thoughts the most.

"It happens tonight." Rai remained quiet even though Serena had spoken to her.

"Don't think about it."

"Serena? Are you still working? We have to get ready for the masquerade. Now!!" Mina had come running into the room, only to find that Serena was still working on one of her band's music videos. The music started to play, and Mina was entranced. Darien walked into the room when Mina didn't come out for a while. By then Serena had rewound the video to edit a part.

"On this bed I lay  
Losing everything  
I can see my life passing me by  
Was it all too much  
Or just not enough  
Wake me up, I'm living a nightmare  
I will not die (I will not die)  
I will survive."

Serena's eyes were on Darien the entire time he was in the room. He was ever her dream prince. His broad shoulders could easily tear the seams of his muscle shirt. She loved being held by those arms. His midnight blue eyes normally held stars in them. They always kept her forever staring at him. His mouth…Oh his mouth…it was positively sinful. Although they hadn't done anything in her bed, and she didn't want too, he always kissed her good night. Sometimes it was an extremely long kiss, other times it was a slow, passionate kiss. Either way, Serena always wanted more.

"You guys need to get ready," he whispered, just realizing that Serena was staring at him. He stared right back at her. She was wearing a knee length brown skirt with a pink, short sleeved turtle neck that was form fitting. Her tiny waist was easily shown, along with her ribs. It scared him to think that she was so skinny he could almost count the ribs standing ten feet away. He had noticed that she hadn't been eating lately, but he just figured that it was stress from her job. He wished that he would have paid attention to the signs that she was becoming anorexic.

Mina and Rai walked out of the room, leaving him and Serena alone. Slowly, he walked over to her desk. She looked up at him. He so easily got lost in those big blue eyes of hers.

"We don't have to go, Serena. We could let the girls go, and we stay home for a movie night." He didn't figure that it would work, but it was worth a try. He had been kissing her good night every night. He was sort of ready for a little more. He had abandoned her though. Why would she even want to?

"I couldn't let them go by themselves, Darien. Even as much as I want to stay here with you." She looked into his eyes and smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. It looked more like she thought that something bad would happen that night.

"Serena—"

"You're right. I have to go get ready." Without another word, Serena got up from her desk and practically ran out of the room, leaving an astonished Darien to watch her. _What is going on? Serena, you have to help me here._

An hour later, Darien was down stairs waiting for Serena. The girls all looked pretty enough, but he had already seen them in their dresses. As a matter of fact no one had even seen Serena's dress yet. Rai started to pace, mumbling under her breath that they needed to leave otherwise they'd be late. Darien's foot started to tap. He needed to get some fresh air. Ignoring the looks of the girls, Darien walked out onto the porch of Serena's mansion.

A lot had changed. He hadn't seen Sammy for a while, but that could be that he was offered an amazing chance to see Harvard, Yale, and Princeton in America, then Oxford in London. Serena hadn't really been surprised that he got to go, which led Darien to believe that she had something to do with making him leave. Sammy had been so happy though that no one had even thought to say something like that to him. Besides it was a once in a lifetime opportunity that he was getting.

Serena had become more open with them all, but she still never revealed anything about the pictures or the poem that was found in her room. After the first couple of day, Darien had just altogether stopped asked her about it. She had kept her temper well, but he knew that she was annoyed with him. So instead of getting kicked from her bed, he stopped. It was a great exchange.

They had all figured out what had changed about their friend too. Instead of being the girl that ate and ate and age with a fast metabolism, she had become the world's only person that didn't need to eat to live. The girl, who had to sleep for at least twelve hours each night, had been replaced with a girl who at most needed ten minutes. He wasn't sure he liked that. He loved holding her as they went to bed each night, but each morning as he woke up, she had already been up for quite some time and already working on whatever she didn't finish the day before. This was another point. The girl, who hated doing any work—where homework or otherwise--, had to be the most work conscientious person he had ever met. All she ever did was work. She loved to play her piano and guitar. It was probably the highlight of everyone's day because that was when they knew that she was calming down enough to be able to come to dinner, only to not eat anything.

Darien had been into the basement only once. It was where Serena kept all of the youmas. There were at least two dozen youmas down there. Each one had a different barrier to keep it in its cage. As soon as Serena realized that Darien had followed her downstairs, she had shut the door and wouldn't let him any further into the basement. It was still disconcerting to know that two dozen youmas were in the house you were sleeping at.

"Darien, she's here." Lida poked her head out of the door. Darien walked into the house again just in time to see Serena descend the last steps. She was wearing a white strapless ball gown dress that had golden sequins and a gold sash on the waist. On the sash were little rhinestones that shined in the light. Her shoes were gold to match the dress, but her necklace was a simple chain with a diamond pendant. Darien walked over to the stairs. As he took her hand in his, he kissed her palm. He looked up into her face to realize that she had on faux lashes and was wearing enough make up for two people. Her hair alone, which was curly, had enough hairspray in it to hold it in its shape for a week.

"You look lovely, my lady." Darien whispered to her.

She laughed. "You look just as dashing, my prince." She whispered back. She blushed, but for the life of him he couldn't understand why.

"Serena, you look so pretty." Ami walked over to her to hug her.

"Yeah, you do," everyone agreed.

"Where is the party supposed to take place, Serena?"

"Only a five minute drive away from here. It's going to be busy though so I suggest that you put on your masks here." Serena raised her hands to show them all masks that matched each of their dresses. She looked at Darien, expectantly. "Where is yours, Tuxedo Mask?" She asked him with raised eyebrows.

"Tonight is not his night. It's mine." He whispered right back into her ear, causing her blush to deepen more.

"That's a beautiful necklace, Serena." Mina walked over to her, just to finger the necklace.

"Is it real?" Lida asked.

"Just a little crystal," was all Serena replied.

oOo

The ball had been gorgeous, and Serena had turned her fair share amount of heads. Even one head was too many for Darien. He had taken to stand by her side all evening; until she was so sick of him she pushed him away. It was just to talk to one of her CEO's wife though, so it was alright, but as soon as she was done, he was right back next to her.

They had danced all night. One waltz after another after another. Serena refused to dance to anything like the Electric Slide, because she said it was demoralizing to watch full grown women in gorgeous ball gowns do something so hideous. Darien hadn't minded. Whenever a stupid dance was one that Serena refused to dance to, Darien took his chance and stole a kiss. The longer the song; the longer the kiss was.

Now they were about to get into their car when Rai ran up to Serena scared.

"What are we going to do? What are we going to do?!"

"Rai, calm down," soothed Serena. "You and the others will just have to sit in the back."

"What?! We can't do that!"

"Yes you can, and you will." Serena commanded. Rai looked like she was about to cry.

"I can't go through this again. Surely there is another way…" Rai let her sentence hang, but Serena shook her head.

"You know it has to happen tonight."

"Have you ever even tried to change it?"

Serena gave Rai a pointed look that clearly said, _Do you honestly think I'm stupid enough to not try? _

"Surely there has to be another way—" Rai stopped when Serena shook her head. "You're just willing enough to go through this again and again?" Serena nodded. "Let's stay here."

"Go ahead, but I'm going home. I'm tired, and I want to go to bed." Serena got into her car, shortly followed by Darien, Mina, Lida, and Ami. Rai looked indecisive for a moment, but she eventually got into the back seat too.

"What aren't you sitting up front?" Mina questioned.

"Because I don't want to die, too." Rai grumbled.

Mina just looked at her confused. Serena turned around from the front seat to give Rai a dark look. When she turned back around, she put head phones in. She was listening to one of the songs she had to produce a music video for.

"I will not die, I'll wait here for you  
I feel alive, when you're beside me  
I will not die, I'll wait here for you  
In my time of dying."

The words were beautiful, and they spoke right to Serena. She knew what was coming even before the car ran the red light, slamming straight into hers.

oOo

Darien stumbled out of the wreckage. From what he could see, no one was really hurt. Mina, Rai, Lida, and Ami were all awake and already out of the car. Darien grabbed the driver and yanked him out of the car so he could get to Serena. She was the only one that wasn't awake. The driver had a mild concussion that Ami took care of.

Mina looked into the other car to see if the driver was alright. He was awake and as bendable as only a drunk person could be. Mina all but picked him up out of his car and threw him on the ground near a lamp post and went to help Darien get Serena out of the car.

He had frozen. He couldn't believe it, even though his heart stopped beating, even though he felt his breath catch, even though he knew with all his heart what he saw was right. He watched in horror as Serena's blood pooled on her white dress. He looked to the origin of the blood. It came from a deep gash on her temple. Her ears were bleeding, too, along with her mouth and her nose.

"No! No! Serena don't you dare die on me!" Darien yelled it as he wedged himself into the car to try to get to his quickly dying girlfriend. Her body was broken. Her ribs cracked from the pressure of the air bag hitting them. Her arm was resting on the door handle still. It was a compound fracture that was gushing the red liquid.

He carefully pulled her out of the car, mumbling all the while that she wasn't allowed to leave him. Finally, they were both out of the car. He carefully laid her on the ground. He body was in a tortured shape. It was disfigured and broken. The gash on her forehead was oozing more blood by the second. Her ribs were bent inward as if she had a disease. He knew that the air bag had broken them so badly they could have scratched her heart and punctured a long. Realizing what he was thinking he bent his head over her mouth and nose to see if she was breathing. Even if she wasn't he wouldn't be able to do mouth to mouth, there was just too much blood.

The horrid red liquid was covering was still dripping from every corner of her face. Even if her heart or lungs hadn't been punctured she might not live through the ordeal.

"Listen to me, Serena. You are not allowed to die on me, okay? You are not allowed to leave me." Darien let his tears go freely. He heard the ambulance in the background. It was getting closer. "You have to stay alive. I know I've been a jerk, but you have to forgive me. I love you, Serena, please…please, don't leave me."

Finally, the ambulance arrived. The paramedics didn't look to optimistic over the way Serena looked. Actually, they blanched and then ran over to her. They called for a helicopter to come pick her up to bring her to the hospital. When the helicopter arrived, Darien asked to go along, but his request was denied. He and the others were going to be taken to the hospital by ambulance to check if they had internal bleeding.

_You have to live, Serena. _

When they arrived at the hospital, Serena was already in the middle of her surgery. The nurses that came out every now and then were as optimistic as the paramedics. Things got really weird when no one had any injuries other than the slight concussion Serena's driver had. The doctors treating them couldn't understand how only one person needed surgery out of the car.

Darien now sat in the waiting room. He had paced so much; the nurses had to sit him down because he was making other people dizzy. So now he just sat in the chair shaking. The girls were just as quiet as he was. No one wanted to talk especially while one of their own was in surgery. Luna and Artemis weren't allowed into the waiting room, so they were waiting outside the hospital for news about Serena.

"Family for Serena Tsukino?" One of the doctors had come into the room. Darien shot straight up and all but ran to the man.

"I'm her family." Darien ignored the fact that only in the future was he her family.

"I don't have good news, sir. Serena will most likely slip into a coma. Four of her ribs punctured her right lung while two poked into her heart causing massive internal bleeding. The gash on her temple was deep enough to actually cut her brain." The doctor paused letting his words sink in. Darien's eyes were wide, and he was shaking his head. "It is a miracle that only she was injured."

"I want to see her." Darien told the doctor.

"I'm sorry, but I can't permit that."

"I am the heart doctor, Darien Shields, if I believe that I can help I patient then I will help them," Darien snarled at the doctor. Finally giving up, the doctor led Darien and the girls to the recovery room where Serena lay. Darien's tear slipped faster down his face.

He ran over to his life.

"You can't leave me, Serena. I have to tell you I love you just once more. I have to prove myself to you, just once more. Please come back, Serena." He picked up her small hand and held it in his. He kissed the palm and rubbed the back on his face.

"Darien, come here." Rai picked Darien up off his feet and turned him around. She then spoke something to the doctor. He looked at the clock. It was two in the morning. It was her birthday.

"Rai, what is that quack doing?" Lida yelled. Darien turned around to look behind him. The doctor was shutting off the machines keeping Serena alive.

"No!" He screamed rushing the doctor. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I obey family orders." The doctor continued to struggle in the iron grip of Darien's hands, but to no avail. There was no way in hell that Darien was just going to let Serena die without a fight.

"Darien, let him go. I told him to do it." Rai spoke. Darien turned around and stared at her.

"She can wake up from the coma, Rai! I've seen people do it! Why do you want her dead?"

"Because she dies today anyways."


	16. Reality

I don't think I really like this chapter. It's a little…stupid. Tell me what you think. If I get enough bad reviews I'll delete it and start over with this chapter.

Don't put down the poem. I don't care how bad it sucks, leave the poem and my poetry skills (or lack thereof) alone.

* * *

Chapter 16—Reality

"You can't know that, Rai!" Darien screamed.

"Yes, I can! And as soon as the doctor unplugs her, you'll see." Rai motioned with her head for the doctor to continue. As he went to the breathing machine, Darien grabbed his shoulders.

"You won't kill her." Darien said through clenched teeth. "Rai is not family."

"I am, Darien. Right now I am her only sane family in Japan. We're cousins." Rai lied. Darien didn't quite believe her, but with everything that had happened, they might have gone through certain connections to show that they were.

The doctor started to try again, but Darien stopped him again. "Sir, if you don't let me do this, I'll call security to escort you out of the building."

Darien let go of the doctor, but only because Lida grabbed his own shoulders. "Maybe, Rai is right, Darien. Maybe this is how the Silver Millennium comes about."

"You don't honestly believe this, do you?" Darien took his hands off the doctor, giving the doctor the chance to finish unplugging the rest of the machines. When Darien realized what he had done, he grabbed the doctor again, but it was already too late. He had finished unplugging everything. Darien's fist clenched as he was about to pound the doctor's face in, but Serena's heart slowed down dramatically.

Something was happening. With each beat that her heart took, the room lurched. It was as if her heartbeat alone was controlling everything. Her heart continued to beat. Each time it beat, the room changed. Darien looked around. He saw all of the girls looking around. Rai was the only one who looked as if she wasn't surprised.

"What's happening?" Mina asked. The bed Serena was laying on disappeared.

"We're going back to when everything went wrong." Rai replied, as the doctor disappeared.

Another heartbeat.

"The poem…that was on the poem that was hanging in Serena's room, but what does that have anything to do with what is happening?"

Another heartbeat.

"Where are we going, exactly?" Asked a very scared Mina.

"The Grand Palace," was all Rai said.

Another heartbeat.

"Why does that sound familiar?" Ami questioned.

"It should sound familiar. It was Serena's palace on the moon."

Another heartbeat.

"So we really are going back one hundred years," replied Darien. He walked over to Serena and held her hand in his. It was so cold, so lifeless.

"No, we're actually only going back thirteen years."

Her heartbeat faltered, but another rang out.

"What happened thirteen years ago?"

"I'm not allowed to tell—"

Serena's heart stopped. The room wavered, then altogether disappeared. Everyone stood still as images started to flash before them.

They saw Serena's death in the car accident, followed by the reunion with Darien. They saw Serena performing on a stage in New York, all of them in the audience. They saw her running to the air port, too late to stop them from leaving, the last kiss between her and Darien; her waking up from a nightmare. Everything changed again.

They were in a different hospital room, a different doctor, a different time. Things started to happen again. They watched as Serena died in an earthquake after the building she was in fell. They watched as Rai and Artemis were the only ones in the hospital room standing next to the dying Serena. They saw as Serena was at the air port wishing them a good trip, saw the last kiss with Darien on their park bench; saw her waking up from a nightmare. Everything changed again.

They weren't in a hospital room this time. They were out on the streets of Tokyo, watching as Serena got mugged. They saw as only Artemis was with her. He nudged her hand, but her eyes were wide and unseeing. Serena wasn't at the air port this time but at the temple, and she was the one walking away. They watched as Serena ran away from Darien in his own building, and after that came the last kiss. She had barged into his apartment. And again she awoke from a nightmare with a scream.

Darien felt tears race down his cheeks as the scenery changed again.

They were on the street again. A car raced toward the crosswalk, right where Serena was. The car didn't slow down; it didn't stop. It hit Serena with such force she was vaulted into the air. No one was with her. She died alone, and everyone was watching her as she took her last breath. It showed a rainy day where she said good bye to the girls. Darien had ran after her and kissed her in the rain in front of Crowne Arcade. They watched in rapt fascination as Serena's parents kicked her out of their house. Again she awoke with a scream.

When things changed again, they were teleported to a bridge. Serena was walking across when a beam broke beneath it. The bridge collapsed instantly killing Serena. She was alone again. There was no goodbye to the girls, only a last kiss with Darien. It was the kiss from the picture hanging in her room. They were in front of her parent's house. She awoke with a scream.

"What's going on?" Darien heard Mina ask. He was too engrossed in watching everything Serena had been through. He didn't know what had happened or how, but somehow she had been through everything they were seeing. He watched as Serena died. He watched as Serena died. This time it was a sink hole in the middle of the road. He watched with a broken heart as they kissed for the last time, it was a normal kiss; nothing was really special about it. It was just in the middle of the park. He watched with an aching heart, wishing he could take away all of her nightmares for the rest of her life.

His tears now came in earnest. He watched her die again. This time it was a tsunami. It struck the heart of Japan. They saw the flooded streets; saw the people floating in the water because the wave had come too quickly. The saw Serena's body floating near her parent's house, face down in the water. He saw himself and the girls in New York, watching on the news that Tokyo was flooded. Grief struck Darien, so hard he fell to his knees, still holding Serena's hand. The images didn't stop though; they just kept on coming. He saw the girl having fun building a sand castle on the beach; he saw their last kiss. The sun was setting; they were on the boardwalk. The dream came again, along with the screaming.

The scene changed again. This time to a bank building. The building was on lock down because an idiot had somehow gotten into it with a gun. He saw as Serena was shot. He had to turn his head away as the other hostages weren't allowed to staunch the bleeding. She was alone as with every other time. There was no last kiss for them. The last time they were together in this timeline was when Darien came to Serena's house. Something must have happened but no one knew what. Serena yelled at him, pushed him away from her house, and slammed the front door, running upstairs to her bed to cry alone. They heard the scream announcing the end of the nightmare.

"This is the last time," whispered Rai. Darien turned around to look at her. She had tears running down her face, just like everyone else in the room. This time they watched as beings on the moon brought Serena back to life. They watched as the beings surrounded Serena and put their hands on her shoulders. After that they saw Beryl, alive and well, crushing Serena's crystal. They saw Serena crying her heart out. As she was crying a monster came to her. She never woke up from the nightmare.

Instead everything was quiet yet again. No scenes were being played out. No one was talking, though the sound of crying could be heard. Serena was still. Darien still holding her hand.

"Welcome princesses and young prince." A voice called out the greeting.

oOo

Selene looked at the people before her. They were heartbroken over the fact that their friend had gone through so much turmoil. How do you explain to people that the reason your friend went through so much was for them? Can you say that to someone?

Dairen was the first to speak up. "Who are you? What's going on? Did Serena really go through everything that we saw?"

"I am the moon goddess, Selene. Serena really did go through all of those things you saw." Selene saw the hurt in Darien's eyes. She watched as he held Serena's lifeless hand to his mouth. "This is not the end, Darien."

"What are you talking about? She's dead," Mina spoke for Darien.

"Did you not see all that she has gone through? all the times she has died? Can you not understand what she has sacrificed for you?"

"She did all of this for us?"

"She did. She knew what was going to happen in thirteen years, but she Hades to give you another chance."

"Hades? We were dead? When did we die?"

"Do you remember seeing Serena crying?"

"Yeah, but it didn't show anything about us dying or that Serena went into the underworld to try to get us back. All we saw was a monster in black clothing."

"That monster, as you call her, is the river nymph, Styx."

"Why does she want Serena killed?" Darien finally spoke up.

"It is what must happen before Serena can be crowned."

"Crowned?"

Selene sighed. "Styx is performing the last task Serena must accomplish before she is crowned as Neo Queen Serenity."

Everyone gasped. They looked down at the still Serena. "What was the poem in her room all about?"

"Serena was going to fight Styx in one hundred years, but because no one can fight when they are 116, she gave Serena eternal youth. The thirteen years was for when Serena would be crowned."

"She gets crowned when she's twenty-nine?!"

"Yes."

"What was the day it all went wrong?"

"That happened because Serena was risking her life for you. She stepped in front of the attack that was meant for Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter, thus causing her to sacrifice her own life for your own. By the time you had defeated the monster, Styx had already pulled Serena out of her river. Styx made Serena a deal—if Serena could defeat nine of her hardest enemies and then defeat Styx, no other monster would bother her for thirteen years, by order of Zeus. If it happened, Zeus would strike them dead. Serena agreed before she heard the conditions."

"That was stupid."

"Serena didn't want to hear the conditions; she would have done it even if she had to stand on her head for ten years with no food and no sleep. Unfortunately, one of the conditions was that Serena had to do it without the Silver Crystal. Serena not knowing didn't realize that Beryl had been pulled out of the River Styx, through the goddess Kali, who acted on order of Styx. Beryl broke the crystal, thus not allowing Serena to use it again until after she defeated Styx. If she defeated Styx, Gaia would recreate the crystal."

"And if she couldn't?" Mina asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"If she couldn't, then the cycle would repeat all over. Styx knew that Serena could do it though, and she did. Serena has defeated Beryl, Rubeus, Diamond, Wiseman, Mistress 9, Pharaoh 90, Queen Nehelenia, Zirconia, and Kisenian Blossom. We have given her godlike powers, but she has not needed them. She was able to fight well and true, using only her knowledge of defeating them in the past and her wit."

"How was she able to defeat them without the silver crystal?"

"I believe that is because Styx left their strongest power with Hades in the underworld."

"You can bring her back, right?"

"This will be the last time I have the power within me to bring her back."

"But you said—"

"If she doesn't defeat Styx, she will have to begin anew, but she will have to be born again first."

Selene walked over to Serena. She placed her hands on her forehead and stomach and said:

"Power of the full moon,

And of the sun at hottest noon,

The sacrificial child has been slain

To rescue those from evil's bane

Bring her back to life once more

To defeat this monster of ancient lore."

Darien and the others were waiting for something miraculous to happen, waiting to see Serena's eyes open back up. Nothing happened. Suddenly, as if in a tornado, everything started to spin. Swept up in the vortex, Darien and the others fell back into time thirteen years.


	17. Awake

Chapter 17—Awake

Serena awoke from her dream with a scream. Just like every other time. And just like every other time, her mom ran into the room to comfort her.

"Serena, darling, are you okay?" Her mom ran up to Serena's bed to touch her shoulder. Serena jerked up into a sitting position, dripping in a cold sweat. She couldn't remember what the dream was about, let alone why she was really screaming. All she knew was that whatever the dream was she always woke up, and her mother was always there for her.

"Yeah," Serena swallowed, "I'm okay. It was just a bad dream."

"Do you want to talk about it, darling?"

"No-No, I'll be okay. Thanks, mom, I love you."

"Oh, I love you, too." With a quick hug, Mrs. Tsukino went back to bed. Serena grabbed her head. It was the last round, finally. She had gone over a hundred years and finally by the end of the week, she was going to fight Styx.

A light tapping sounded at the window.

Serena jumped and flipped to face the glass. Standing just outside was Darien. She could see his dark blue eyes shining with anger outside of the window. As soon as she recovered from her scare, she threw open the window.

"What do you want?" She whispered.

"Get your butt out here and explain," was all he said before he climbed down the trellis. Serena didn't want to go down. She was nice and warm in her bed. She looked around her room as if she might be able to see something that would give her an excuse to stay in the room. Seeing nothing, she looked back towards Darien. He was near her driveway waiting for her. He crooked his finger, motioning for her to come to him.

Groaning, Serena got out of her bed and quietly climbed down the trellis. She was wearing shorts and a tee shirt thankfully so she didn't have to change, but she really wished she had changed. It was actually cold outside. _How can June be so cold? It's almost July! This is ridiculous! _She walked towards Darien slowly, trying to calm down her emotions. Within seconds, she reached him.

"How did you get here so fast?" She asked him once he got closer. Not answering her question, Darien grabbed her shoulders and turned her towards the road. Once they were out of the gate, Darien wrapped his arms around her waist and brought her lips up to his to kiss her.

She had never been kissed like this before. The kiss was hot and wet and absolutely devastating. He pushed her up against the wall and continued to kiss her; one of his hands rising to frame her face, and the other wrapping itself more tightly around her waist. His mouth let her lips go and trailed down her neck. When he raised his head, his eyes were tortured.

"Don't you dare die on me ever again." He searched her eyes.

"I didn't want to, but I had no choice." Serena stopped when she realized he wasn't listening to her. "I'd ask what's wrong, but I have a feeling, you already know."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"It was part of the agreement."

"Why did Styx even care?"

"She knew that I still had a future that had been planned out for me. She was told by Zeus to pull me out of the river if she ever found me there. Because she did pull me out though she offered me an ultimatum of sorts. In exchange for pulling me out, I had to defeat her."Darien pulled her towards his car. It was across the street from her house! "You've been spying on me?!"

"No, I can't remember what I was thinking in this timeline. When exactly are we?"

"20XX. This was part of the first round though. You wouldn't remember anything."

"Where are the others?"

"As far as I know, they're at the temple. Rai knows to keep them there for a little while."

"So is Rai accustomed to this?"

"Can anyone really be "accustomed" to going back in time?"

"True." Darien was quiet as they both got into the car. He started the engine, but as he was about to put it into gear, he paused.

"Besides the obvious, what's wrong?" Serena asked.

"I just thought of something. When do you go to fight Styx?"

"It's supposed to be on the anniversary of the day that I died for Venus and Jupiter."  
"And when exactly is that?"

"Four days." Serena held her breath waiting for Darien to yell. Instead he clenched his hands so tight around the steering wheel his knuckles turned white. He didn't say one word. He threw the car into drive, and they sped off towards the temple.

The temple hadn't changed drastically. It was in pristine shape. The grass mowed, the door on its hinges, the roof was without holes, and the fence was freshly painted. Darien didn't understand why the temple would change so much in just thirteen years. _Just thirteen years, _Darien scoffed. _Thirteen years was long enough for Serena to become the richest person in the world. It was long enough for me to become the most respected heart doctor in the medical community. _

"What made the temple look so down trodden in the future?" _Or rather the past or rather—never mind._ Darien stopped his thoughts before he confused himself even more. He didn't need this.

"You remember Selene telling you about all the monsters that I have defeated? Well, all those battles were fought at Rai's temple. The youma's constantly go there from the underworld. That was when I started to "collect" them. We were so tired of them destroying everything."

"So did it always look like that? in each of the rounds you went through?"

"No. It was just this round. Somehow the youma's figured out that to kill me they had to find me. So the battles were normally fought on the mansion's land. With the temple the youma's appeared so regularly that it was totally worthless to repair anything when they were just going to appear again later. Rai didn't want to move so she stayed there."

They both got out of the car to walk to the temple. The lights at Rai's house flickered on, showing that the girls had just woken up. Darien grabbed Serena's hand and walked right beside her. She had gone through too much alone. There was no way she would be going through the next four days without him by her side. If it was his choice, he would stay by her side for the rest of eternity. If she didn't defeat Styx…He didn't want to think about what would happen if she didn't. Selene had said that Serena would be born again, but she never specified when. For all he knew she could be born the very next day to different parents in Siberia. He knew their future would happen, but he didn't know how much older than her he would be. He was already six years older than her! Would he really want to be nineteen years older than her if she didn't defeat Styx?

"Are you alright?" Serena asked him again.

Darien scoffed.

"You don't have to be rude." Serena pulled her hand from his and walked a little faster. Darien sped up and captured her hand again, spinning her to look at him.

"How should I be acting, Serena? Huh? I just saw you die! I had to watch as you died over and over again! I had to watch you as you died alone! Now there's the very real possibility that when you go to Styx in _four_ days you won't survive. Now tell me, how am I supposed to act?" Darien breathed heavily. When she opened her mouth, he rolled his eyes and finished walking towards the temple, pulling her behind him. Each time she tried to get loose, he held on tighter. By the time they reached the doorway, he was practically dragging her.

"Darien…you're hurting me." At her words Darien turned around to look her in the eyes. There were tears present.

"You aren't afraid of dying a horrible, painful death, but me holding your hand causes tears?" Darien released her hand.

"I'm not afraid of dying because I know that I'll come back. I don't like you trying to pull my hand off of my arm. This is as new to me as it is to you, Darien. I'm not used to being here with you. I don't want you see me die. That's why—" She stopped.

"Why what?"

"Why I never told you."

"You had the choice? I thought that you couldn't tell anybody." Darien looked at her with contempt in his eyes.

"I wasn't allowed, but couldn't I have asked you to stay?"

"Why didn't you?" The contempt had changed to sadness.

"I've lived and died nine different times, Darien. Could you have lived and kept your sanity? If our positions had been reversed, I would have lost my mind watching you die. I wouldn't have been able to live."

Darien pulled her into a hug, knowing she was right. He wouldn't have been able to live. He would have suffered so much even knowing she would be brought back to him.

"I love you, Serena," he whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"I love you, too." She raised her head towards him. Taking the opportunity he bent and gently kissed her lips. It didn't turn hot and wet, but it was just as passionate. He worshiped her with his mouth, telling her without words how precious she was to him, even though he could get angry at her.

When they broke apart, he pulled her close and whispered in her ear, "I swear, if you don't defeat Styx, I'll kill you myself."

When Serena heard his words, she squeezed him and responded, "don't worry. I'm stronger than you think."

"Which is why we are all waiting for you inside," said Rai as she walked out onto her porch.


	18. Explanation

Chapter 18—Explanation

Serena and Darien walked into the temple and sat down at the table where Mina, Ami, and Lida were already sitting. They were sitting conference style; their hands folded in front of them and sever looks on their faces. A nervous giggle rose up in Serena, but she stamped it down. Laughing now wasn't going to improve the situation.

"We have some questions for you Serena." Mina was always the outspoken one, and she lived up to the expectation when she spoke first.

Serena didn't respond. She waited patiently for them to continue.

"Don't you have anything to say?"

"You haven't asked any questions yet."

"Well, we wanted to give you a chance to explain yourself, but if you don't want to—"

"I don't believe I have anything to explain. Selene told you everything that you needed to know."

"How do you figure 'you have nothing to explain'?" Questioned Lida, incredulously.

"One again Selene explained it all to you. I put myself in front of Venus and Jupiter so they wouldn't get killed. Styx pulled me out of the river, thus giving me new life and making me immortal. She gave me over one hundred years until I had to fight her. Because she gets a kick out of making people bitter and hateful, she caused me to go back into time after every thirteen years. Now in four days, on June 30th, I will have to fight and defeat her to show her that I'm worthy to be the queen of Crystal Tokyo."

"Selene didn't explain a couple things to us though." Darien mentioned.

"Like what?" Serena shot back.

"Like why you have to _die_ every thirteen years."

"I have to die every thirteen years because I have to get crowned at age twenty-nine. If I didn't die, that would mean that I'm…one hundred twenty years old."

"But you've lived for one hundred twenty years, doesn't that technically mean that you are—"

"No, because I die every thirteen years. This is circular reasoning, Darien. It all leads back to the same thing."

"Okay, they what drives you to the moon?"

"Huh?"

"The poem that was in your room. Which reminds me, wanna explain what that was about too?"

"The poem…the poem…Oh! The poem! That was what Styx said to me when she pulled me out of the river. Albeit there was a lot more, but that was the part that stuck." Before she could finish, Darien interrupted her.

"What drives you to the moon though?"

"If you'd let me finish!" Serena rolled her eyes. "Styx is considered a god so; I had to learn the proper way of defeating a god. The only way to do that is written on the Cave of Trials on the moon."

"Cave of Trials?" Luna asked the question. Everyone looked at her like she was insane.

Artemis answered her. "The Cave of Trials is a prophecy cave for the royals. A crazy old man during the Moon Kingdom age wrote on the walls telling prophecies. No one really took him seriously except for Queen Serenity, but that was only because he explained what would happen when she took the throne. Everything he had said was correct. As I recall, she took Serena there often enough so she would know what to do if something happened."

"Why was Serenity so surprised that Beryl attacked then?"

"She was surprised because though it was supposed to happen after the party; she thought it would happen a couple days or years after the party. She didn't think it would happen immediately after."

"Now that that is settled, how do you think you're going to defeat Styx?" Ami raised her eyebrows. The look on her face said _since it's you, I'll bet you die before you even get anywhere near her._

"Thanks for being so confident in my abilities, Ami." Serena looked directly into Ami's eyes. Ami's face turned almost purple as everyone looked over at her. Slowly they turned their attention back to Serena.

"Well," Ami prodded.

"It wasn't very clear, but it said, 'Through trickery and deceit/The foul loathsome monster beat/With sword, armor, and shield/To defeat the monster and heal.'"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Ami started mumbling under her breath.

"It wasn't very clear because you couldn't read it!" Rai accused.

"Like you could have done any better." Serena retorted.

"I could so."

"Could not."

"Could so."

"Could not."

"Could."

"Couldn't."

"Girls!" Rai and Serena stopped bickering at Luna's scream. The small black cat was huffing and puffing. "Do you mean to say that both have you have been to the Cave of Trials?"

"Yes." They replied together.

"How did you know where to go?" Rai pointed at Artemis. "You led them there?!"

"Well…Serena was already on the moon, so I had to lead Rai there. Serena was the one that led me. Somehow she knew exactly where it was."

Everyone turned towards Serena.

"What? I have a good sense of direction."

No one spoke.

"Do you want me to show you that I do know what I'm talking about and can lead you there without getting lost?" Serena asked, raising her fingers to massage her temples.

"Can you actually bring us to the moon?" Lida asked.

"Yes, I can."

"Okay, let's transform—"

"There is no need to do that?"

Everyone looked at her with a 'huh?' expression. Darien's eyes lit up with understanding.

"You don't have your crystal."

"Well…I have the crystal, but unfortunately that crystal is in a million little pieces." Serena pulled out the necklace she had been wearing to the masquerade ball. She held it by the chain, so that everyone could see the pendant.

"You still have your necklace?" Mina cried. "Where are ours?"

"I have my necklace because this pendant is the Silver Crystal." Everyone gasped. "I had it made into a necklace so that it could be repaired one day."

"You can get it repaired?"

"Well that was what Selene told me. She said that I had to defeat Styx for Gaia to repair my crystal."

"How will Gaia repair it?"

"Ya know what, I really don't care. All I know is that I want it repaired."

"Okay, so how are we going to get to the moon?" Ami asked, obviously doubting Serena's ability.

"Are you doubting me again?" Serena asked, only half joking. "We are going to get there by the fire in Rai's temple."

Serena walked out of the building, leaving the others to run after her. She was already halfway to the temple when they finally caught up with her. She just slowly led the way towards the fire temple, ignoring everyone's questions. Rai was oddly silent throughout the ordeal. She was kind of just in her own little world. When they finally reached the temple, the fire was already lit.

"Why is the fire lit?" Mina asked. "Do you keep it lit all the time now?"

"I didn't light it. Whenever Serena walks into the room the fire lights," Rai responded.

"What?" Everyone turned to face Serena.

"What? It's not like I do it on purpose. I don't even know how I'm doing it." As Serena spoke the fire went from the natural colors to an iridescent blue.

"What's happening?" Nearly screamed Lida.

"It does that whenever Serena speaks." Rai spoke as if she was bored.

"Who knows?" Serena asked, not really expecting an answer. She turned around to look at them, but without letting them answer, she walked forward through the fire. Darien ran forward to look at the fire. Serena wasn't roasting in it, and she wasn't on the other side.

"Where is she? Why did she walk into the fire?" When Darien spoke the fire turned an iridescent green.

"What the heck?" Rai walked over to the fire. She placed her hand into it, but she didn't quickly pull it out as if burned.

"Is it cold?" Ami questioned.

"It's lukewarm. I walked into the fire when Serena turned it blue, but I'm not sure if we should go through it."

"Where did it lead when it was blue?"

"It led right to the old Moon Kingdom."

"Right where?" Lida asked her question very confused.

"Where Serena used to live."

"What should we do?" Luna asked. Her face was worried.

Before Rai could answer, a hand came out of the fire and pulled Rai into it. Rai screamed, as did everyone else. Before they knew it, they had all followed Rai into the fire, Luna and Artemis included.

oOo

When Darien walked through the fire, or rather ran through, he immediately saw Serena and Rai standing there.

"What took you guys so long?" Serena asked angrily, tapping her foot.

"When Darien started to talk, the fire turned green. If it had remained blue, we would have been here a lot sooner." Rai told her.

"Do you know why it turned green?" Darien asked.

"It turned blue when I spoke because of the Silver Crystal. I'll bet that it turned green because of the Golden Crystal." Darien nodded even though he had no idea what Serena was even talking about. "You don't get what I'm saying do you?"

Darien shook his head.

"There are quite a few crystals in the universe. The Silver Crystal of the Moon—which I possess, the Golden Crystal of the Earth—which you possess, and a few other powerful ones. We become king and queen of Crystal Tokyo because we have control over two powerful crystals—hence _Crystal_ Tokyo."

"How do you know that I have the Golden Crystal?"

"Selene told me about it. You have time to find it before I get crowned queen, don't worry."

"I have a question." Implored Lida. "How come you get crowned just thirteen years after you defeat Styx? I thought you didn't get crowned until the thirtieth century."

"Okay, think of the royalty of ages past. When one group wanted a different king than who was already on the throne, they anointed him as king, took over the kingdom, then they let the king of their own choosing take the throne. It's sort of the same concept. I just get anointed."

"Oh…"

"Will you take us to the Cave of Trials now?" Luna was really impatient. She had never heard of it before, and she really wanted to see it.

"I suppose I could…" Serena looked at Luna, then motioned for everyone. "If you will follow me."

oOo

Serena led them straight to the cave. To get there, they had to go underneath the castle and down over four hundred stone steps. When they reached the bottom of all the stairs, there was a huge stone door blocking their path.

Serena put her hand onto the door, and spoke, "_posterus ut duco per stultus, Mos permissum tantum sapiens sceptrum_."

Everyone stood back when the door opened.

"What did you say?" Mina asked.

"The future as drawn by a fool, will let only the wise rule." Ami spoke for Serena. "It's Latin."

Serena nodded her agreement then walked into the cave. It was huge. It was at least the size of Mammoth Cave in the United States. There were millions of pictures everywhere. The pictures taller than a man's height had pulleys and bridges that led around the cave. Serena walked right over to a certain group of pictures. She turned around to look at them when she noticed that she wasn't being followed. She waved them over with her hand. Once they finally reached where she had stopped she pointed to what she wanted them to see.

First she pointed to a blond meatball head, "that's me. It says that I will fall into time," she pointed to someone falling and a clock, "for thirteen times eight and four days—each sun and moon represent a day and each one with circles around it is thirteen years," she pointed to the set of sun and moons, "on the fourth day, I will go to the underworld," she pointed to a three headed dog, "when I do that it says that I will have a golden sword and armor," she referred to the picture of herself wearing a gold suit and holding a golden sword, "it says that I will defeat Styx," ironically she pointed to a pile of brown sticks being held at the mercy of Serena, "that's how it ends. Mother believed that when he died, none of his prophecies would come true, but she still followed them to the word."

"So how long do you have to train?" Asked Lida.

"Three days. I fight Styx on June 30th."

"That's your birthday."

* * *

About the crystal things, that kind of introduces a new story that i'm going to do after i finish this story--there's only a couple chapters left. Oh well, tell me if it makes sense. All constructive criticism is positively viewed. If you have any questions just ask and i'll explain as best i can.


	19. Evidence

Ami isn't going to be the same meek and mild character from the series. I wanted her to be the smart, always logical one, but I didn't want her to be only a doormat—for lack of a better word.

Last time on Time Spell:

_"So how long do you have to train?" Asked Lida._

_ "Three days. I fight Styx on June 30__th__."_

_ "That's your birthday."_

* * *

Chapter 19—Evidence

"Yeah, it is," Serena answered, looking solemn.

"You gave yourself up for our lives…on your birthday?"

"So? We were just fighting a normal monster." Serena answered, shrugging her shoulders.

"How were we killed fighting a normal monster?"

"Haven't you been listening? You weren't killed; I was."

Lida rolled her eyes, scoffing. "Whatever. How do you figure you're gonna be able to fight? You have to train somehow, don't you?"

Serena narrowed her eyes looking at everyone. First at Lida, then to Ami, then Mina, Rai, and finally Darien. "What do you guys have against me? If I did something you think I need to apologize for, then you might as well just forget it because it isn't gonna happen."

"Well," started Ami, "I don't believe that you can fight against Styx at all. I don't believe that you'll even be able to get into the underworld."

"Why are you so mean? Look I know that I didn't tell you guys about the 'curse,' but I wasn't allowed! It was part of Styx rules!"

"Right now, this doesn't have anything to do with the 'curse'."

"Then let me prove myself to you. Let me show you that I can hold my own weight."

Ami considered the idea. "How are you going to do that?"

"The same way that I'm going to defeat Styx. Are you up to it?" Serena raised her eyebrows, obviously challenging Ami.

"What are the rules?"

"We fight, in the exact way that I will be fighting Styx in three days. If I win, you trust my judgment, and you _will_ trust me."

"And if I win?" Ami prodded.

"I'm not sure. I haven't quite gotten there yet."

Ami scoffed. "If I win, we train you the way we want to train you, and you can't complain no matter how hard we work you or how badly we may hurt you."

Without even missing a beat, Serena said, "No problem. Shall we start now?"

"Let's."

Serena flipped around first, her long blond hair swirling around her. "Rai, will you please show Ami how to get ready?" Without waiting, Serena continued walking away from everyone.

"Ooohhhh! She makes me so mad! Who does she think she is?" Ami nearly yelled. She didn't care if Serena heard her. As a matter of fact, she actually wanted Serena to hear her.

"She's the future Neo-Queen Serenity, she is the past's Princess Serena, daughter of Queen Serenity, and right now she is Serena, our friend, who deserves our loyalty and allegiance." Rai was furious at Ami. Serena shouldn't have to prove herself to anyone. It's okay though, Rai knew that Serena was going to win the fight against Ami.

Rai had actually asked the same thing of Serena as soon as she knew that Serena had been going back in time. She "knew" that she could defeat Serena easily. She "knew" that Serena was a weakling. When she went into the arena, that was located in the basement of the moon palace, she thought that it was going to be an easy fight, one that was going to be over with quickly.

She was wrong.

The fight was hard. Serena obviously knew what she was doing. She was stronger than she had ever thought. It was just another reason why Rai decided that she better follow Serena instead of being her enemy. The fact that Serena had actually floored Rai within the first minute of the fight had a pretty large influence on it too though. Her back hurt so badly after that. There was an enormous bruise covering the expanse of her back, just from falling on the hard floor of the arena.

"She will never have anyone's allegiance or loyalty if she always goes leaping into things without even looking where she's jumping! She will have my allegiance and loyalty if she can defeat me."

"So then it will be forced allegiance? What if she doesn't defeat you? She still—"

"No she won't deserve it, Rai. Now where do I get ready? I have to get warmed up."

Rai sighed. Ami wasn't normally like this, but when she was, heaven help her, Rai wanted to slap the blue haired girl. "Follow me," was all Rai said before walking away without even turning to make sure everyone was following her.

They went back through the huge stone door and up all of the steps. Rai knew they were following her, just by the sound of their shoes hitting the stone of the steps. They walked past the fire table.

"Where are we going?" Darien asked. He had been oddly silent during the exchange between Ami and Serena, but since he was following them, he obviously agreed with what Ami had said.

"We're going to the arena." Ra was mad at Darien. How dare he just take sides with Ami? Serena was his girlfriend, she was supposed to be the one he trusted the most.

"What's the arena?" Lida asked, looking at the almost complete destruction of the palace. The pillars that held up the balconies were long since destroyed and on the ground. The shingles from the roof were crunching under their feet. The arches that had led the way into the ballroom so many years ago were only half standing, no roof between them.

"The arena was a place where the knights of the moon kingdom prepared for war. There are certain buttons that dress up the soldiers so that they would be dressed in the proper attire."

"It's okay. I can still go in there as Sailor Mercury." Ami said shrugging her shoulders with a smug look on her face.

"Ha!" Rai burst into laughter. "That's really funny, Ami, but…um…no Sailors are allowed in the Arena."

"What?"

"It's the way the Arena works. The people who designed it didn't want cheaters anywhere near it."

Ami was obviously fuming. She was huffing and puffing. She refused to talk with anyone else.

Eventually they reached the Arena. They were stunned. The room was huge. It was as if it had at least four of the ballrooms inside of it.

"It's huge," Ami said in awe.

"Well, thousands of soldiers had to practice here, of course it's huge. Come you must get ready."

oOo

Ami couldn't believe it. Rai had led her straight to an armory. This armory was different though because there were no weapons, armor, or chain mail. All that was in the room was one small thing to put your thumbprint on. Rai didn't tell her what was happening or anything; she just motioned for Ami to place her thumb on the pad. She had approached it cautiously. And even more cautiously she placed her thumb on the pad.

It was as if she was turning into Sailor Mercury. It was such an odd feeling; similar to her first time transforming. She felt as if she was floating, but her feet never left the ground. Her eyes closed as she relaxed and let it transform her.

Finally it had stopped. Ami opened her eyes. She felt heavy. She tried to do a little bouncing move, but the clink of her armor stopped her. She looked in the mirror, and her mouth fell open. She was a red type of Under Armor, covered by golden metal knee caps, waist belt, shoulder pads, and wrist protectors. Her golden metal boots went all the way up to her knee. The only thing protecting her head was a small golden metal crown. Her right eye was covered by a brown make up that matched the bird like creature, also painted onto her forehead.

"Get ready, Ami." Rai said.

"Why?"  
"Your weapon is about to appear." Rai gestured toward the wall. Ami's eyes went wide as a long handled, one sided, warrior's axe appeared. Ami gasped and tried to run over to the wall. Unfortunately the armor she now wore was far too heavy. Once she got over there, she picked it up reverently. It was heavy enough to protect her, but light enough to for her to be able to easily wield it in battle.

"I'm going to go out and sit in the crowd, Ami." Rai just started to walk out of the little room.

"How will I get out to the Arena?" Ami's panicked cry stopped Rai.

"The door is on that wall. Once it opens, you'll be introduced first, then Serena's will open and she'll come out second. After she get's introduced, the fight will begin." Rai started to walk out again, but as if it were a second thought, she stopped and said, "good luck. You'll need it."

oOo

Rai had been gone for almost ten whole minutes, and in those ten minutes, Ami had fully gone from calm to freak out mode. After Rai had closed the door leading to the outside world, Ami had stayed glued to the spot she was in. For about five minutes, she stood there, waiting for the door to open to the arena. Five minutes of agony, she stood there, praying that maybe the door was broken and that was the only reason why it wasn't opening.

Ami looked at the place where Rai had gone through. She dropped the battle axe. She sort of ran or hobbled to the door and started pounding and screaming.

"Let me out of here!" She screamed and pounded some more. "Rai! Lida! Mina! Darien! Please! Someone get me out of here!"

Ami screamed until her voice was hoarse. She pounded until her hands were bruised, but no one came and opened the door. Finally she remember the battle axe she had just left lying on the floor. _If no one is going to come to help me out, I can always break my way out._ Ami smiled evilly. She was not going to be stuck in this room for another minute.

She hobbled towards the axe, but as soon as she picked it up, the door to the arena opened. Ami stepped out onto the tile floor. It was immaculate. Almost as if no time had ever passed here. Unfortunately she knew better. Time had spread just as quickly and just as easily here as it had everywhere else on the moon.

"Princess Ami of Mercury." A voice announced from somewhere.

Ami screamed. When Rai said she would be introduced, she didn't think that a voice would actually come on an intercom and say her name.

The door opposite her opened, shutting off all thoughts of what Ami thought would have happened. When Serena came out, she looked like a warrior princess. Her meatballs had been taken out so her long blond hair hung straight down her back. She, too, was wearing golden armor, but her armor was so much shinier. Her chest plate didn't have sleeves, but had shoulder pads attached to it, so she could still remain safe. Attached to the shoulder pads, was a small orange cape. Her skirt was also made up armor but vastly resembled Ancient Roman foot soldiers. She wore orange leggings and orange wrist covers. On top of the leggings were sharp knee pads as well as mid calf boots. Over the orange wrist covers were metal wrist protectors. Her helmet, wasn't a true helmet, but rather something that would keep her safe if an enemy attacked from the front, and it vastly resembled a lightning bolt that framed her face. Under her eyes was coal like drawings that dipped way down to her neck.

None of those things had Ami scared. No she was fine with knowing the fact that Serena might have more protection. She was fine knowing that she was going to be fighting someone that had no vulnerable spots. It was the fact that her golden sword was as long as Serena was.

"Princess Serena of the Moon Kingdom." The voice came again.

"Are you ready, Ami?" Serena asked seriously.

"As ready as I'm ever going to be." Ami grabbed her battle axe and made her way up to about half of the arena. Serena met her halfway.

"This is going to be a simple battle, Ami. We will not fight to the death, but rather to see who is the strongest and most prepared for this. The first person who falls to the ground loses. There are no rules except try not to hit the face. I would prefer to not have any scars." Serena and Ami both bowed to each other, after Serena had explained the rules. "Oh, and no biting or scratching."

Ami smiled and rolled her eyes.

"On the count of three. One…"Serena and Ami started to circle one another.

"Two…"

"…Three!" Serena was the first to lunge. Ami had to practically scramble out of the way to avoid getting hit by Serena's blade. Ami lunged next, but Serena easily pushed the axe away from her person. For five minutes they fought like that. Ami was sweating even though she knew that it wasn't a real fight. They were mainly just sparing. It didn't even look like Serena was getting sweaty at all. She looked just as fresh as she always had. She wasn't even getting half as tired as Ami was. _She is not weak. _

oOo

Serena was getting annoyed. She didn't want to fight with Ami, but it was the only way she would ever regain her respect and friendship. Finally, Serena rolled her eyes and started to really fight.

She swung her sword backwards to easily slice Ami's axe into two parts. Ami stepped back and looked at Serena with fear in her eyes. _I don't want this. I don't want her to fear me._ Serena continued to fight even though her thoughts were riotous. She slammed Ami's body with her own, trying to get the blue haired girl to slip off her feet. As Serena hit her, she swung her sword and hit Ami's legs with the broad side.

As Ami fell to the ground, Serena's sword also appeared in the middle of Ami's face.

"Do you yield?" Serena asked.


	20. Countdown

I introduce a new character that has to deal with my next fanfic, so don't get too confused about all the things Serena will tell the others.

I don't own Tylenol.

* * *

Chapter 20—Countdown

Ami looked up into Serena's face, trying to ignore the sword nearly poking her eyes. Ami thought that she had been doing really well. She had deflected Serena's attacks easily. She had been doing really well until Serena started to really fight.

"Do you yield, Ami?" Serena asked her again.

"Yes," Ami said through clenched teeth. Serena removed the sword from Ami's face and offered her a hand up. She was just about to take it when—

"Serena watch out!"

Serena turned around to see a monster bearing down on her. She raised her sword in front of her to block off the attack, but the monster was too strong and pushed her all the way into the opposite wall. Serena hit the wall and fell down to the floor. She rose up to her knees and shook her head. _What the heck is this? This never happened before! Styx, what the heck are you doing? Why are you messing with me? _Using her sword as support, Serena rose to her feet. The monster charged at her again. This time Serena was expecting something like that to happen, so she easily moved out of the way before it could hit her.

The monster nearly hit the wall before it turned. It was a woman. She had auburn hair that was greasy and stringy. The green dress she wore couldn't be considered a dress anymore; it was so torn up. The woman's purple nails resembled claws. In her hands she held a staff. She had demonic wings. Serena knew that she knew her from somewhere, but she couldn't place her anywhere.

"You fought your friend and beat her easily, Serena. Are you ready to defeat me though?" The woman started circling. Serena wasn't going to be in the middle of that circle.

"Who are you?"

"You don't know me? Such a pity…" The monster suddenly lunged. The staff she was holding turned into an enormous sword. Serena blocked her, but it was with great difficulty. They both raised their swords once again. They started to circle again. Serena attacked. The monster easily dodged it. They started to really sword fight. Metal echoed against metal time and time again. The fight ranged all over. Serena was glad to see that Ami had gotten up, but now she was worried that she would interfere. She didn't have a weapon. That gave Serena a great idea.

Quickly she registered where Ami's axe head had fallen. It was lying on the ground approximately just three feet away. Serena fought to get away from the woman, and when she finally did, she ran and grabbed the axe head slipping as she did. Finally she picked it up and looked into the woman's yellow eyes. That's when it hit her.

"Eliza?" Serena stopped fighting long enough for the woman to take advantage of the situation and lunged at Serena. Serena didn't have any time to jump away from the attack; so she tried to block it. Though she deflected the other woman's sword from her heart, it careened it toward Serena's head. Thankfully the metal she had around her face protected her from most of the blow, but her temple still got nicked rather deeply. Serena stumbled backwards, her vision going blurry for a few seconds.

Just in time, she regained her vision and was able to throw the axe head at Eliza just before there was too little time lost. Serena could feel her cheek getting wet as blood ran down it. She rubbed her arm across her face rubbing away the blood. She was breathing heavily and was tired. She didn't understand why—

Eliza attacked again. Serena put her sword up in front of her face. Eliza was breathing heavily also. It gave Serena hope. She put all of her strength into her sword, and slowly she pushed Eliza away. She swung her sword in a complete circle and just managed to get her to let go her sword. She heard Ami and the others cheer as the sword flew out of Eliza's hand. Serena, still holding tight to her own sword, punched Eliza in the face.

Eliza stumbled backwards, her mouth bloody. Serena stopped moving, the wound on her head, getting to be too much for her to handle. Her vision went blurry again. Eliza charged at her causing Serena to drop her sword. Eliza swung multiple punches straight at Serena's face and gut, but Serena was easily able to deflect the blows. Serena kicked her foot up and was able to push it into Eliza's stomach. Eliza stumbled away, but just as quickly she moved back and took Serena down. _Uh, covered in armor and rolling around on the ground was not something I had expected when I said I'd fight Ami._

Serena flinched as she heard her nose crack from the hard punch Eliza gave. More blood ran down her face. Eliza put her hands around Serena's throat. As Serena started to suffer from lack of oxygen, she noticed the axe head not even a span away from her. She stretched as far as she could.

oOo

The fight was hard. Ami had wanted to help Serena so badly, but one look from Serena had stopped her. The look she gave her promised that if Ami interfered, Serena would personally kill her. Ami had wisely stayed behind near where she had come into the arena. Now she wished that she had helped her friend.

Serena was getting the crap beat out of her. Her face was bruised. The gash on her head continued to poor. She was doing really well though. She hadn't gotten many hits on the woman she had called Eliza, but she was fighting back. She was fighting back harder than Ami had. Now, Ami had to watch as Serena was pulled onto the ground. Serena was defending herself, but she all but stopped when the woman broke her nose. Because of the break, Serena stopped struggling, and the woman took control of the moment. She put her hands around Serena's throat.

"Ami! Ami, you have to help Serena!" Darien shouted the command through the observation room above where she stood. Ami started to walk forward. All she had near her was the wooden bottom of her axe. What was she going to do? _Oh, Serena, I'm so sorry. If it wasn't for me, you probably could have fought this woman off easily._

oOo

"She's going to die. She's going to die, and there's nothing that I'll be able to do about it." Darien was at the end of his rope. He had just yelled for Ami to help Serena. Ami had just continued to stand there though. It was as if she hadn't even heard him.

"Darien, she can't die." Rai started to explain, her voice gruff.

"What are you talking about? That woman down there is holding her throat—she's cutting of all air and blood to the brain. And _Ami_ is just standing there watching!"

"What do you want her to do, Darien? Tackle the woman? Beat her over the head with the wooden end of her axe? She can't help right now." Rai was ready to smack Darien.

"Oh my goodness…" Mina whispered.

"Wow! Great job, Serena! Go for the kill!" Lida shouted to her comrade. Darien and Rai turned back to the battle. Serena had lifted up the axe head and had it raised over the woman's head. With one swift motion, Serena brought the axe straight into her enemies head. It stuck there, as the woman screamed. She let go of Serena. She stumbled backwards letting out an ear piercing scream before disappearing altogether.

Serena let her arm fall back to the ground. It was all too much for her to handle. Ami ran up to her just as her eyes rolled back.

oOo

Serena woke up from her faint two hours later. Eliza had been here. _I just fought and _killed _Eliza. How the heck did she get here? Why did Styx send her?_ Serena sat up slowly, clutching her forehead. She felt the stitches in the deep gash. She rolled her eyes and wished that she had a bottle of Tylenol. Her fingers traveled down to her nose. It was straight now, but only because someone must have broken it back into place. Her fingers traveled over lips, feeling the cuts; they traveled over her arms and legs, feeling the various cuts and raised bruises.

"Is she awake yet?" She heard Lida whisper. Finally she took in her surroundings. All that separated her from her friends was a sheet. _How did they get that here?_ When she looked at the rest of the walls, she discovered that she was in the cave. Lamps were lit everywhere except for in the makeshift room.

"She needs her sleep, Lida. She might not wake up for a little while longer." Mina whispered back. Serena smiled and shook her head.

"Why are you guys whispering? Serena sleeps like the dead." Darien said, very loudly. Serena's mouth dropped open, and before she could help herself she said,

"I do not!" The curtain was yanked open flooding the small area with light. Serena covered her eyes from the intense light.

"Oh thank God, you're all right!" Darien ran up to hug her. His arms slid around her, but Serena had too many bruises to be held tightly.

"Darien, you're hurting me." She breathed a sigh of relief as he let go.

"You have to answer a couple questions for us now Serena." Rai said very seriously.

"Okay, shoot." Serena cuddled closer to Darien, loving the feel of his arm wrapped around her shoulders.

"Who the heck was that?"

"Her name is Eliza. She was my guard from the Moon Kingdom, and the woman who taught me how to fight."

"Really? Cause it looked like she wanted to kill you just a couple hours ago." Lida spoke.

"That's because she did want to. A month before Beryl attacked we found out that Eliza was a spy. She was hung that day."

"Why is she here though?" Rai questioned. "You didn't have to defeat her the last round."

"Or the round before that," piped in Artemis.

"Well, Styx said that I'd have to fight monsters, and Eliza was the worst monster that I've ever even had to defeat."

"Because of how well you knew her."

"Exactly. But that doesn't matter now. We shouldn't be bothered again for three days."

"Great. Just so you know," Lida was helping Serena up out of her bed, "you fight like a girl."

"Go figure." Serena said shaking her head.

"You need someone to teach you how to throw a punch."

"Are you volunteering?" Lida nodded. Serena laughed. "Personally, I like the axe head in the skull trick better."

Darien turned toward her, horrified at what had just come out of her mouth. Serena laughed all the harder.

"Hey, Serena, are you okay?" Ami had been waiting outside of the tent for her friend. Serena walked up and hugged her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing really well."

"I have another question." Rai shouted.

"I would like to keep my ears. You don't have to shout, Rai. We can all hear you."

Rai smiled sheepishly. "Anyways…will Styx be hard to defeat than Eliza?"

"Well, Styx is one of the guardians of the underworld. She is best friends with Hades, and she is a goddess, so…yeah. She will be."

Rai made a face. "You're going to need a lot more practice. You barely survived that one. Had it not been for Ami's axe head, you wouldn't have."

"That's why you guys are going to teach me." Serena concluded. They all gave her a funny look. "What's that look for?"

"You won, Serena." Ami spoke quietly.

"So. You can't help me out, just because we placed a bet and you lost? The people I knew would never have let that stop them." Serena knew she was challenging them.

"Fine. We'll help you." A smile spread across Ami's face.

"First things first, you throw a punch like this Serena." Not waiting any longer for her to recuperate, Lida immediately launched into the first lesson of fist fighting.


	21. Underworld

This kind of makes no sense to me, but i sort of lost inspiration for this. I'll finish it, but it might take a little while longer.

I don't own sailor moon.

* * *

Chapter 21—Underworld

Step.

Step.

Step.

Serena marched across the field leading to the enormous coliseum on the horizon. It had been three days since Eliza had attacked her, and in those three days, she had been beaten, thrown down, and altogether pummeled. She still hurt from the rigorous things they did. There was still only one joy, though. She and Darien had gotten a lot closer. He slept with her each night. He was always rooting for her. He was the main one that thought that she could be victorious. And, finally, she was.

She had never been so happy, then Darien had to go and ruin it all. She was still smiling and sort of gloating from her wonderful victory when he decided he had to speak.

_ "Fight me, Serena."_

It was all he had said, but those words rang in Serena's ears. She remembered felling so victorious, so happy that she had finally won, and as soon as he said that everything stopped. Every good and warm feeling she had was replaced with ice. She hadn't even answered him for a little while. She had just looked into his eyes, trying to gauge if he was serious or not. Unfortunately for her, he was.

_"Fight me, Serena." _He had spoken it again. Finally believing him, she nodded, still unable to speak. They had gone into the armory to get ready—he in one end, she in the other. She came out first this time, since he was the challenger. She came out in the same gold outfit she had worn when she fought Ami. He came out dressed in the full garb of Prince Endymion. Needless to say, her fear had continued to grow as soon as she saw him. He had this dark look on his face. He meant to win, even if it meant defeating her. He would not go soft on her, just because he was in love with her—and she didn't want him too! She wanted him to be the powerful fighter that he was. She wanted to be as strong as she could possibly be to defeat Styx, even if it meant getting defeated by Darien. She was gone even before she could really start fighting with Darien.

Now she was marching toward her almost certain death.

oOo Darien's Point of View oOo

They circled each other, getting ready to fence. Darien's sword was shorter than hers, but it was easier to handle, unlike her enormous, body length sword. He had a shield, an advantage that Serena hadn't minded until then. She was going to have to defend herself and defeat Darien—and ultimately Styx—with only a sword.

Slowly they raised their swords. Darien's eyes had remained focused on her. He wasn't sure how well he could fight with a sword, but he had been a warrior prince in the Moon Kingdom, maybe it would be like riding a bike, you never forget. _Yeah, right, _he thought. Serena let Darien make the first move. He raised his sword and swiftly brought it back down. Serena had the greatest advantage though, she wasn't wearing the heavy armor he was, and she was a lot smaller, both in height and weight, than e was, meaning she could move quicker than he could. He swiped at her again. She avoided him. He felt her sword connect with the back of his leg. His knee buckled but he easily regained his footing. He turned around to face her, she wasn't there.

"You have to do better than that, Serena." He had told her. He couldn't see her. She was nowhere around him. He looked up to the girls watching them fight. They looked as confused as he was. Darien looked up to the ceiling. Serena was nowhere to be seen. "What's happening?" He asked to anyone that could hear him.

"I don't know, she just disappeared," Rai had taken the time to answer. She rushed down to the arena, shortly followed by the others. They each appeared in their warrior garb.

"Well, my darling Sailor Scouts," came a voice suddenly. "Your precious princess is with my master now."

"Who are you?" Darien screamed.

A figure appeared before them. It was dressed in the traditional garb of Death, but this…monster still had rotting flesh on his bones. It was not what they had expected death to look like at all. Instead of a scythe, he was holding a thirty-six foot pole.

"My name is Mortimer, first prime to the Queen Styx."

"Why did you take Serena?"

"I did not take her. My mistress wanted her presence."

"Why?"

"She tired of your nonsensical ways. She ordered that you are to be brought to the coliseum also." Before Darien could ask any more questions, they were instantly transported to the Underworld.

The boat they were on barely looked like it could hold Mortimer, let alone Darien and the girls. It was just a little boat that looked like a gondola from Venice. Mortimer put his pole into the black water and started to push them towards the looming coliseum. The underworld was different than any movie anyone had ever seen before. It was cold and dark with a thick fog that permeated into the deepest layer of one's soul, making them feel insignificant and alone. On either shore there were the remains of human bodies, skulls and bones with crows picking out what soft flesh remained. The crows turned around to look at the humans in the boat. They were so sick and malnourished that their bones were sticking out. They're eyes were red and hollow and were ready for their next meal.

"What happened here?" Rai asked Mortimer.

"These are the remains of those who have been lost."

"What do you mean?" Lida asked, tearing her eyes away from the crows.

"Those who things have happened to, and their families had never seen them again."

"How do they get down here?" Ami asked.

"Destiny determines what will happen to them. If they are meant to never be seen again, they will appear in the Underworld." Mortimer gestured with his hand toward the far shore. There was a dark wooded area with a small little boy running through it screaming for his mom. The girls started to cry. "Do not let the souls see your tears."

"Why not?" Mina asked, tears streaming down her face, sobs threatening to take over. "That little boy is still alive. He still has a chance."

"He doesn't."

"What do you mean?"

"He was taken by a pedophile on earth. He is only a soul. His body has not been found as of yet though. If it doesn't get found in the next five years, it will be transported down here, and the boy will be able to continue his journey."

"What if it does get found?"

"He will be taken to a better place."

"You never answered my question though," Mina asked sniffling a little. "Why don't you want the souls to see us cry?"

"The souls are beneath you." Everyone looked under them. "If they see you crying, they will believe that you are dead and replace your soul with their own.

"Why?"

"Close your eyes and listen." Everyone did as Mortimer commanded. To their unbelieving ears, they heard soft crying coming from beneath the gondola. Accompanying the cries were screams. The screams were so loud, so piercing, and so full of pain that everyone had to cover their ears. Darien was the first to open his eyes, but that was only because of the sound of cannon fire. Their gondola was drifting straight through two twenty-eight-gun frigates, firing upon each other.

"What is going on?" Darien screamed above the racket. Mortimer waved his hands across his face, and the ships dispersed. "They were ghost ships?"

"Yes." Darien was hoping for a little more, but unfortunately he was disappointed. He turned back to look at the shore line. The skulls and bones were gone, only to be replaced by crypts and coffins.

"Why are they here?" Mina asked, shivering, her tears finally under control.

"The cemeteries on earth get too full. When they do, instead of burning the bodies and the coffins, we take them down here." The gondola came to a sudden halt. "We have arrived."

Darien and the others looked around themselves. In front of them was destroyed and ruined buildings. They looked old and decrepit. They were obviously from the Medieval and Roman ages.

"What you see before you are the lost cities of Damasia and Canopus. Damasia is the lost city of Germany, and Canopus is the lost city of Egypt, during Roman rule."

"Where do we go from here?" Rai asked. They got out of the boat to stand on the dock.

"Go straight through each city. You will reach the end of Canopus in an hour. Guards will be waiting to escort you into the coliseum." They watched as Mortimer put his pole back into the water and pushed off.

"Shall we?" Lida asked. They all turned around slowly. Damasia was obviously the first city. Blood had stained the cobblestone road. The buildings had been torn apart. Doors were off hinges, siding was in disarray. Darien started walking first. He tried not to look at what had happened to the city, but it was difficult. They saw more bones lying along the sides of the street. Inside the buildings were broken plates and bowls. Books were strewn about the floor. Toys had been left behind.

"These people were so unprepared." Rai had leaned down to touch her hand to one of the skulls on the side of the road. "It was a massive flood. They were standing outside just watching it get closer and closer."

"It sounds like it was a tsunami." Ami whispered. Rai nodded, tears rolled down her cheeks.

"How could Styx do this?"

"Don't think about that right now. We have to help Serena right now." Darien looked away from where Rai was kneeling toward the coliseum in the back ground. _Please stay safe, Serena._


	22. Betrayal

I do not own sailor moon, or the song "It's On" by Superchick.

Chapter 22—Betrayal

Darien and the girls continued on towards the coliseum. It was a long hike, but if Serena was there, then they could at least be in the stands cheering her on. It took them a long while to make it through Damasia, but finally they were in Canopus. It was a true Roman city, complete with a temple to the goddess Fortuna.

"Lot of good, she did them," Ami commented.

Darien ignored her. His mind was totally focused on Serena right now, to think of anyone else, let alone the stupidity of the ancient Romans. Everyone started talking suddenly. Why they thought that they could talk right now was beyond him. For all he knew, there could be enemies lurking behind every corner.

As it turned out, no enemies were behind any corners. They did see a lot of souls, though. These souls were more haunting that the little boy running through the forest. There were mothers holding their baby children. There were toddlers crawling around, looking for either of their parents, husbands wandering their house wishing for their wife to come back. For some reason, they couldn't see Darien and the girls, nor could they see each other.

"This is so sad." Mina remarked, finally making Darien go over the edge.

"Will you all, please, just shut up?! I'm so sick of it! For all we know monsters could be waiting for us! So please—" Darien was cut off.

"Darien, no need to be so rude!"

Slowly, everyone turned around. Standing directly behind them was Styx. She wasn't what they thought she would be like. Her hair was a dark purple. Her eyes were red, and her clothing was the darkest black. She had beautiful features, her lips dark red, her eyes were almond shaped, and her skin was pale. Her fingernails were long and painted purple.

"Styx…" breathed Lita.

"Present." Her smile was malicious. "Now, if you wouldn't mind following me."

"Why?"

She laughed. "Because Serena will be coming this way soon."

"So?"

"If she finds you, she will be able to defeat me."

"So, we're going to be watching from the stands aren't we?"

"Only if the stands are in my dungeon." Styx laughed again. "Mortimer, if you wouldn't mind showing our lovely guests to their dungeon." With that Styx was gone and in her place was Mortimer.

oOo

Serena cautiously entered the city. This city looked German with the way the buildings were. The wood was criss-crossing just under the windows before stopping just before the door came into view. These houses look irreparably damaged. The roofs were caving in; the doors had been blown off, the windows broken, and the insides littered with what used to be furniture. Serena looked into one of the windows and was appalled to see human remains lying next to the destroyed furniture.

She took a deep breath. This was nothing like before. Last time the river went around the cities, not through them, so she didn't see anything like this. All she even remembered for meeting Styx before was floating down the river, right next to hundreds of other souls. She had seen figures of white swimming in fields of blue, but nothing else until Styx had actually pulled her from it. She remembered being brought to the coliseum and the conversation afterwards, but until then nothing.

Serena started on her way again. She was about to turn left to go deeper into the city, when an orb of white light stopped her. It bounced in front of her then took off in a different direction. Enthralled, Serena followed the glowing orb. It led her out of the Germanic city, straight into a city that looked like it came from ancient Egypt. These houses were sun-dried, mud brick. It was the same story as t he Germanic city though. The houses had been utterly destroyed. Sand built up at the entrances, not as many bodies—or rather what was left of the bodies—could be seen anywhere.

"Where are you leading me?" Serena new it was futile, but she figured that she might as well give it a chance. She should have known better though, now it just sounded like she was talking to herself. "Eh, why not? I have nothing better to do anyways."

oOo

Darien and the girls were led into the coliseum. They had a feeling that they were prisoners.

"We need to escape." Ami suggested, already examining their bleak circumstances.

"As of right now, we're not prisoners, Ami. Right now Mortimer is just leading us into the coliseum. For all we know it could be because we were lost." Lita was trying to reason with Ami, but Rai smashed all of her efforts.

"For all we know, we're being led to a cell, so that we'll rot there, because it'll take Serena so long to find us."

"Rai!" Lita, screamed at her. The slight bickering went on for quite a while, leaving Darien alone in his thoughts until, Mina decided that he was lonely.

"Darien, what's going on?" She was bright and cheery as always.

"Hm…well, let's see. I fly back from New York to see Serena, to beg her to get back with me, but instead I am informed that she has actually been through the past ten years of her life, nine different times—"

"Actually, Darien, it was thirteen years."

Darien gave Mina the nastiest glare, he had ever given anybody. "I really don't care how long it was, Mina. All that matters is the fact that Serena had gone through them nine different times. Then to top it off, we were with her, when time reset itself. Now, we are in Hades, we have no idea where Serena is, and we are be3ing held prisoner of Styx and her evil henchman, Mortimer."

"Serena is obviously okay, Darien."

"How would you know that?"

"Don't you have a link with her?"

"I haven't felt that link since the time I moved to New York. I'm not even sure if I have the same link with her."

"Oh." It was probably the stupidest thing, Mina could say, but it somehow seemed to fit.

"This is insane," they heard Rai mutter.

"What? What's going on?" Darien asked as he and Mina caught up with the others.

"My transforming stick isn't glowing." The rest of the girls looked at theirs. None of them were glowing.

"What does that mean?" Darien asked, still not completely understanding.

"It means that we can't transform." Lita finally responded.

"Of course you can't!" Mortimer's voice broke into their thoughts. "My mistress isn't stupid. She would never allow you to be able to transform; it would ruin all of her plans." He gave a short laugh, and Darien swore he heard Mortimer mutter under his breath "idiots," but he couldn't be sure.

"What plans," asked Ami.

"They are plans for your leader, Sailor Moon." A collective gasp sounded. "Other than that I can't tell you."

"Can't tell us, or won't?"

"Both. Now please be quiet and follow me."

Darien and the girls obeyed and still followed him. They didn't know why, but something held them in their places, something that was stronger than them. It wasn't a dark energy, but neither was it good. While following Mortimer, they looked around at where they were. Though it was a coliseum, they could hear no roars from animals, no screaming from prisoners, no fighting in the arena. It was as if it were a ghost town. No one was in it, and no one would be in it. There were pictures on the wall that showed what had gone on in this particular coliseum. It showed battles between demons and humans, it showed Beryl, Diamond, Wiseman, Pharaoh 90, and Chaos. It had Queen Serenity, giving the Princess and her court, new lives. It showed Sailor Moon defeating each of the monsters they had ever defeated. On the last panel, it showed Serena on the ground before Styx. Darien gasped as he saw it.

_No! No! NO! She has to win!_ Darien was nearly on the ground. Lita turned around and helped him stand up.

"She's powerful, Darien. She'll win, don't worry. She'll win."

oOo

Serena followed the orb of light, straight to the entrance to the coliseum. It was dark inside, causing Serena to hesitate for a second. Suddenly everything she had gone through, everything she had defeated, every time she had wished she could tell just one person, every song she had written, every picture she took, it all led up to this moment. This moment was her moment. She had written songs just for this moment. This was the time when she would defeat Styx and get her life back. This was the biggest trial she had to pass before she could become Neo Queen Serenity. She had to defeat a god.

Serena took a deep breath and walked through the entrance. It was like she was transported back in time. She felt as if she were back in Roman times going in to her death. It felt like she couldn't breathe. Her air was stuck in her throat. _Come on, Serena, be brave!_

A song suddenly came to her mind, instantly calming her. It was one of the ones she had written the first go round:

It all comes down to this  
You take your best shot, might miss  
You take it anyway  
You're gonna make your move today  
Got the will, you'll find the way  
To change the world someday  
Grab this moment before it's gone  
Today's your day.

The orb of light continued to lead her. It led her straight into the arena. Suddenly she was in her golden armor. In the stands around her, she saw the gods and goddess of ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt. Right on her eye level was Styx. Slowly Styx made her way towards Serena.

The gods and goddesses yelled for a fight. Serena promised them that they'd get one, no matter how long it took her to win. Styx was also wearing armor, Serena finally noticed. The only difference between theirs was that Serena's was gold, and Styx's was black.

Serena brought out her sword and held it almost at eye level to Styx's. Styx smiled. Without any warning, without a count, without any normal means of how people do fencing, Styx swung her sword straight at Serena's face. Serena blocked it.

"Good job, Serena, but can you keep it up?" Styx taunted Serena. She wanted Serena to get mad; she wanted her to lash out, to start acting carelessly. Serena made sure that she didn't get mad.

"Not bad yourself, Styx, but your form needs work." Serena taunted right back. She wouldn't be going down that easily.

They circled each other cautiously, each of them waiting for the other to strike first. Finally, Serena could stand it no longer. She struck. It wasn't her strongest attack, but it was still powerful. Metal sounded against metal, as each attack grew in power and force.

It was almost as if they took turns knocking the other into the ground. Each time Serena fell though, it was that much harder for her to get back onto her feet. The last time Styx knocked her down, Styx took the opportunity to kick her into submission. It was unfair, but no one would stand up and defend Serena.

And the view will never change  
Unless you decide to change it  
Don't feel like it today  
Just show up anyway  
And though life will take you down  
It only matters if you let it  
Get up, go through, press on  
Today's your day.

Serena forced herself to get up. She forced herself to fight. She had gone through too much to just quit now. She had lived over one hundred years already, did she really want to live another hundred. Her friends were counting on her to win. They had taught her for three straight days. They had always been there for her when she had needed it the most. She had always known that even if they were in America, all she had to do was call them, and they would come.

Styx's sword landed another fatal blow. Serena's vision went black for a second as she heard the crowd screaming in the background. _I can't do this anymore,_ Serena thought. _I can't defeat her. I never could—not even after living my same life nine times over. I should just quit now. I'll never win!_

And though you wanna quit  
Don't think you can't get through it  
You've come too far to walk away  
It's not gonna be today.  
And no matter how you feel

It's what you do that matters  
This is your moment to be strong  
Today's your day

The song had just popped into her head. She had written the lyrics so long ago, it had been the first round. She had thought that she would feel this way, so she had decided that she would write the lyrics as a little the-klutzy-blond-meatball-head-is-gone pick me up. It was doing as it should. It encouraged her to fight harder, better, stronger than she ever had before.

Styx was just about to land the winning blow. Her smile was huge. "I told you, Serena," she whispered darkly, loud enough for only Serena's ears. "I told you, you wouldn't be able to defeat me. I told you, you would be too weak."

"I. Am. Not. Weak." Serena threw her sword up to defend herself. "I was powerful enough to defeat you then, and I'm powerful enough to defeat you now."

Serena beat down Styx easily. She was able to quickly make Styx lose her balance. Luckily for her, Styx was a great deal lighter than she was. Styx rolled on the ground, neatly evading each strike of Serena's blade. Styx tried to get up, but Serena put her foot in the small of her back and forced her back down. Styx's blade went flying through the air, landing only ten feet from either of the fighting women.

In a mad dash to get the blade, Serena and Styx raced. Serena slid, in excellent base ball form, and got to the sword before Styx could. Carefully holding both blades, Serena advanced on Styx, who was looking for anyway to get away from her opponent. Serena rushed her. It scared Styx enough that she tripped over her own feet and landed roughly on her rear. Serena finally stopped when she was standing over Styx. With carefully wrought precision, Serena stomped the sword into the ground on the left of Styx.

"Who's weak now, Styx?" Serena said her words slowly. Her breath was coming out in gasps. She had won. She raised the other sword and as she was just about to plunge it into Styx's dark stomach, a voice stopped her.

"Stay your hand, Serena."


	23. The Return

I do not own Sailor Moon

* * *

Chapter 23—The Return

"Stay your hand, Serena."

Serena's hand holding the sword immediately stopped. It was against her better judgment, but slowly she lowered her sword. She turned around to face the voice that had told her to not kill Styx Unfortunately; she had turned around only to come face to face with Zeus. Serena was forced to take a step back.

Swallowing, Serena spoke up. "She put me through hell! She deserves punishment!"

"I know she does, child, but are you really willing to be the one to give her that?"

"Why can't I be the one to give it to her? She destroyed my life!"

"Serena…" Zeus's wife, Hera, walked up the small group. "Darling, it isn't worth it. If you kill a god, there are everlasting consequences. We want you to be able to live your life without such things."

"She deserves punishment! She shouldn't be allowed to interfere in other people's lives, even if she is a god!" Serena felt tears running down her cheeks. Hera walked up to the crying girl and wrapped her arms around her.

"She will be given punishment," changing the subject, Hera finally continued. "Your friends are waiting for you."

"Don't you have to right my life before I go back to the surface?"

"Back to the surface? Darling, they are right in the coliseum."

Serena gasped. She stepped out of Hera's warm embrace and spun around to face Styx. Styx was still on the ground, but now she was on her knees in submission towards Serena. "You broke the promise," Serena whispered. Her voice suddenly grew louder. "Where did you put them?"

"They are in the dungeon, milady." Serena dropped her sword and ran towards the dungeons. She only knew where they were because when she had first seen Styx, she had been kept in the dungeon for a couple hours. She had it committed to memory. She swung around where the stairs were and skipped a step at a time to get up them. She turned a corner and crashed into Mortimer. He was guarding a metal door. Without saying a word to Serena, he handed her the key and walked away.

She looked down at the key in her hands. It matched the rusted door perfectly. She would be able to tell them that she had finally done it! She had defeated Styx; she had defeated a god! She smiled and rushed the remaining feet to the door. Happily she put the key into the hole, forgetting that Styx had broken the agreement. She was just happy about being able to tell her friends that she had done it.

oOo

Darien looked up as he heard the key turn in the hole. After seeing the picture he was almost certain it wasn't Serena. He was just as certain that is was Styx ordering Mortimer to have them killed. He looked at the girls. To him, it looked like they were thinking the same thing he was. He stood up, ready to face his punishment like a man; he took a deep breath, waiting for the door to open.

The door slowly pushed open. He held his breath. _Serena! I wish that you were here! I wish that you didn't lose that fight! _Darien's mind was going crazy. He saw a shadow fill the door way, and he bowed his head in submission.

"Oh thank God, you guys are alright!"

Darien jerked his head up. It was Serena standing in the doorway. "You're alright? You won?!"

"Of course I won! Did you have any doubt, your fearless leader wouldn't?" She said it jokingly, running across the room and launching herself into Darien's arms.

Darien gladly caught her, holding her to him as if he'd never let her go again, and he didn't want to. He laughed. His hand went up to bring her face away from where it was buried between his shoulder and his neck. He touched her face lovingly just before he smashed his lips on hers. Serena gave a little squeak of surprise at first, but she wrapped her hands in his hair and opened her mouth for him. The kiss was passionate, each of them rejoicing in Serena's triumph.

"Get a room," they heard someone say behind them.

"As much as we love staying in this depressing dungeon, can we please leave now?" Serena and Darien broke apart, embarrassed because they had been kissing not only in front of their friends but also in a dirty, nasty dungeon. Serena grabbed Darien's hand and led everyone out of the dungeon, straight into the arena where Zeus, Hera, Styx, and Selene were waiting for them.

Darien stopped abruptly on seeing Styx. He was still wary of her. Serena tugged on his hand getting him to finally move forward. "Come on; it's okay." She smiled at him. He continued walking, but he was still very tense. As they drew closer to the gods, Styx smiled and got down on her knees, putting her head to the ground. Darien's mouth dropped open.

"Forgive me, your highnesses." She spoke. "I had to make sure that Serena was capable of ruling the future world."

"We know," Serena said. Some of her anger draining off at Styx's contrite position. "We are ready to go back to our original time though."

"As you wish, Princess." Zeus said. Suddenly straight out of Darien's arms, Serena disappeared.

"Why aren't we gone?" Rai asked of the head god.

"We have a feeling that you wanted to talk with us about something." It was Hera who spoke as everyone was transported out of the coliseum straight to Mount Olympus. They were in Zeus' throne room. Zeus walked over to a looking pool in the middle of the room; Darien and the girls walked over to it. In the middle of it was Serena, sleeping in her bed back on earth.

"Will she remember anything of what happened?" Ami asked.

"No. It was Serena's wish that everything that had happened would be wiped from her memory." Hera said walking up to the pool. "You were never supposed to find out though, so there wasn't any need for her to give instructions concerning you."

"Why weren't we supposed to find out about it?"

"She figured that it would be easier on all of you if you never knew about it." Hera touched the water as Serena started to stir. Immediately she fell back to sleep. "She has had too many a sleepless night to not receive one now."

"What do you suggest we do?" Darien asked, truly interested in the both of the god's opinions.

Zeus pondered the question a moment before finally answering. "I think that you should remember everything."

"Why?"

"So that you could remember everything that had happened and maybe change your attitudes a little bit towards her."

"Oh."

"I agree with him," Hera added. "There are some things you can change if you remember things."

"What could we change?"Lita questioned.

"That is not for me to tell you, but for you to decide." Hera looked towards her husband. "I think it's time."

Zeus nodded. He raised his hand.

And for the second time, Darien and the girls fell through time and space.

oOo

Darien was outside of Serena's house yet again. He was standing beside his car, for some reason. He didn't know why he was watching over her house, but it kind of disturbed him. If anyone saw him standing out here, they would think that he was a peeping tom. Darien rolled his eyes and walked towards the gate that held entrance to her house. He had to see if she was okay.

He opened the door, and climbed up the tree right next to her window. He opened the window as quietly as he could. He wasn't sure how heavy she slept right now, but if she was anything like the nightmare they had just lived through, she couldn't sleep at all if anyone was making the slightest bit of noise. He looked down at her bed right below the window as soon as he got it open. She stirred in her sleep and rolled over. He smiled and reached down to touch her cheek lovingly.

"Darien," she sighed and turned into his hand. He leaned down and gently placed his lips on hers.

"I love you, Serena, and I promise you, you will never be alone again." He whispered his oath to her.

"Darien," she sighed again. Quietly he closed the window, got in his car, and drove back to his apartment.

oOo

Serena ran through the park. She could hear the Scouts and Tuxedo Mask calling for her help. It wasn't as if she had meant to be thrown across the park. The piece of crap monster was the one who threw her. An entire mile—how the heck did one tiny monster throw her an entire mile?!

_Ow! My back hurts! _Serena moaned, finally finding her way to where the battle was still raging.

"Serena! Are you okay?" Sailor Mars asked very concerned. Serena turned towards Mars to give her a stare. _Why are you acting so kind? _

"Serena, morph! It'll help you!" Sailor Jupiter yelled towards her.

"Moon…Cosmic…Power!" Within seconds, Serena was Sailor Moon. Trying to get her bearings—and to stop focusing on her aching back—Sailor Moon didn't attack the monster right away.

"Sailor Moon, you have to destroy her, before she kills someone else!" Sailor Venus stepped in front of her to protect her from the blast the monster threw towards her. Taking a deep breath, Sailor Moon ignored the fact that they were acting so weird, turning her entire focus onto the monster.

"Moon…Healing…Escalation!" With the little song and dance, Sailor Moon easily defeated the monster. She was really concerned with how they were treating her. They were being so kind. _I think the monster hit them one too many times._

"Did you get hurt when the monster threw you, Sailor Moon?" Ami asked, having already transformed back. Sailor Moon transformed back into Serena and gave Ami a weird look.

"Is everyone alright?" She asked. She was too tired to think about how they were acting.

"Everyone's fine. How are you?" Darien asked.

Serena gave everyone a weird glance, then turned and walked away, leaving them all staring after her.

"I think she thinks that we're insane." Rai mumbled to the others as they started to help the people on the grass.

"Well, why wouldn't she? She has no idea why we're acting like this." Lita said in response. "Let's just hurry up here, so we can go be with her before she takes her little vacation."

Everyone nodded and quickly finished what they were doing.

oOo

Serena had just turned on her stereo and was listening to the latest song from the United States. The song seemed to inspire her to write one of her own. She had always done this in the past—with her old friends. The people she called "friends" right now, seemed like they were strangers. For some odd reason they were all being so kind and loving. _What in the world? The weirdo's…what has happened to them?_ Normally if she even looked away from a fight for one second they were screaming at her. _What the heck? _Serena absentmindedly wrote down the lyrics she had been thinking about:

"Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming,

Cannot cease for the fear of silent nights.

Oh how I long for the deep sleep dreaming

The goddess of imaginary light."

Serena looked down at the lyrics she had just written and erased them. She didn't want to write something so dark and depressed. She was in a good mood right now, albeit a confused one.

"Serena, your friends are here to see you." Mrs. Tsukino knocked on the door. "Would you mind if they stayed for dinner?"

"Um…yeah, I guess that's fine." Serena sniffed a little. _What are they doing here? They never come here!_

"Serena, I'm coming in, sweetie." Mrs. Tsukino opened the door and walked across the room to where Serena was sitting on the bed. "What's going on, Serena?"

"Nothing, Mom. It's just that—I don't know. Nevermind."

"Serena, your father and I have been talking," _Uh oh_, "we think that it would be best if you went on a vacation of sorts."

"Why would I need a vacation?"

"Serena, I've seen all the bruises you've come home with. I've seen you try to cover them up. Something's been happening, so your father and I have talked with your Aunt, and she said that you're welcome to come and stay with her for a little while."

Serena nodded. Maybe it would be better if she went to stay with her aunt for a little while, maybe for only a weekend. "Okay, I'll go."

"Great! Then why don't you pack, and after dinner tonight, we'll take you to the train station."

"But it's only Tuesday. Can't I wait until at least Thursday?"

"Be glad, you aunt wanted you to come last week." Serena shook her head. Figures, she would leave for a full week, when she only wanted to be gone a couple days. "Come downstairs for now though, darling, you and your friends can pack later."

Serena followed her mother downstairs and was amazed to find that not only were Rai, Ami, Lita, and Mina there, but so was Darien. _This is so weird._ Darien smiled at her, took her hand and led her to the dining room table for a simple meal of steamed fish, sushi, and soba noodles. It was a quick dinner, and on more than one occasion, Darien and the girls had made everyone laugh. At six o'clock, Darien went home, and the girls went upstairs to help Serena pack. One of the first things was the Silver Crystal, and that went straight into Serena's make up bag. Finally after, laughing and giggling the packing ended. The girls parted ways at the train station just as Serena was boarding.

Waving goodbye from her window seat, Serena though, _I really don't care why they're acting so weird. They're finally being like friends toward me. Maybe my life is finally starting to get lucky._

oOo

Serena was on her way home from Hakata. She had gotten into Nagasaki International! She had called her parents right away, and they were waiting at the train station for her return. She hadn't told Darien or the others yet though. She wanted it to be a surprise for them. Though they had called her each day she had been gone, she had deliberately not told any of them about the audition, nor that she was coming home three days early. It was Thursday night, and she was already un-boarding the train in Tokyo. She looked out the window, while she waited for everyone to pass her people got so angry when they wanted to get off the train. She'd been on it for over five hours already, how much more could they want to get off than her?

Serena rubbed her eyes thinking that she was seeing things. Her parent's and her friends were standing on the platform waiting for her. Darien and the girls were smiling widely. Serena hoped her mother hadn't told them her news.

Suddenly, Serena jumped out of her seat, nearly knocking three people down. She was so excited! She didn't care if her mother had told her friends about Nagasaki International. It didn't matter if they didn't want her to go—and she was going to be going, even if they didn't want her to. All that mattered, at that point in time, was her family and her friends. She knew her future would turn out all right.

* * *

Just the epilogue is left!! Oh my goodness!! This went so quick! Stay tuned. :P


	24. Epilouge

Well this is the very last installment of Time Spell. It's almost sad to think about…sniff, sniff…oh well. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did while I was writing it! Well, review if you really like it.

This will have a couple flash backs in it. Just remember that Darien and the scouts still have their memories and Serena has absolutely no recollection of anything that had happened in the story. I made it so that Serenity and Endymion and the scouts woke up at the thirtieth century instead of living until then. I really hated the fact that 12 year old Rini was really 900 years old.

I don't own sailor moon. The song is You by Amy Lee.

* * *

Epilogue

Crystal Tokyo—30th century

Darien would never forget what it felt like, when Serena had gotten off the train. He had seen her face in the window, it had shown so much wonder that she had seen him and her friends standing there waiting for her. She looked so happy. She had jumped out of her seat, grabbed her things, and ran to where everyone was standing on the platform. She had run right to him, throwing herself into his waiting arms. Her parents had called him, and he had called the other girls, almost immediately and told them that Serena was coming home that evening.

Serena had jumped into his arms, then told him and the girls that she had been accepted into Nagasaki International. It was great! It took a lot of really good acting to pretend that they hadn't already known. She had seemed so happy. It felt wonderful to see her smile again. When they had first come back to Japan, during the time when she had kept going back in time, she had hardly smiled at all.

Darien, or rather Neo King Endymion, couldn't be sure at what had prompted his sudden remembrance of one of his favorite memories, but he wasn't sorry at all. Tomorrow was her thirtieth birthday, so that could have something to do with the fact that he was remembering.

They had been in Crystal Tokyo for just under a year. Serena had been crowned on her twenty-ninth birthday. On the very next day, an ice age started to approach, and Serena was nowhere to be found. Darien and the others found out that Nyx, the sister goddess to Selene, had already put Serena into a deep sleep on the moon. Shortly thereafter, Nyx put Darien and the girls into the same sleep. They would stay in that sleep for one hundred years; Darien and the girls awaking out of their slumber just in time to watch as Serenity saved the world. He had kept his promise though—while he was capable he never left her.

They had been married after to graduated Julliard. It made him really sad to think that she had graduated college before she was even twenty. She had done it for nine rounds. He had missed out on so much of her life.

=FLASHBACK=

Serena slowly walked across the stage to get her diploma. She was graduating from Julliard two years early, the same as she had for Nagasaki. She was graduating top of her class along with Emily Kings and Rachel Angelini. They had met up at Julliard exactly like they had said they would. It was awesome! They had even shared a dorm room!

When she had first come to New York, she was scared at how her relationship with Darien would be. It had been better than ever. They were so happy. It was kind of strained for a little while, when she had first moved to Nagasaki, but they had gotten over the distance and got closer than ever to each other. He had been there when she graduated from Nagasaki. She had been so scared! Now she was graduating from Julliard, and she could see Darien and her friends right in front of her. All she had to do was get up on stage and perform a piece she had written.

It was a song that she had written for Darien, when she had first gotten back on one of her vacations from Nagasaki. Slowly she sat down at the piano and placed her hands on the keys to play the introduction of her song.

You know you're all that I live for  
You know I'd die just to hold you  
Stay with you  
Somehow I'll show you  
That you are my night sky  
I've always been right behind you  
Now I'll always be right beside you .

After she had finished playing, the roar of the applauding audience startled her at first. As soon as she looked at Darien though, she felt such a peace. Darien smiled at her, and he clapped even louder.

"May I be the first to introduce you to the class of 20XX!" Serena smiled as she turned her tassel to the left side. She mouthed _I love you_ to Darien.

After going out to dinner, immediately after the graduation, Darien bought her an ice cream cone and took on a walk through Central Park. They stopped near one of the most beautiful fountains, Serena had ever seen. Darien led her right up to the fountain and sat her down on the ledge. They sat there as she finished her ice cream.

"Did you want to do anything else, Serena?" Darien asked her. He was waiting for the right time.

She thought about it for a second. "I'm ready to go home," was all that she said.

"Can we just stay here for a couple more seconds?" Darien sat down next to her and held her hand for a little while. Serena didn't mind; she was perfectly content to just sit there holding his hand for a little while. Serena turned her head and looked toward the aqueduct on the other side of the fountain. Darien took her distraction to heart and knelt, on one knee, in front of her.

"Serena," he started. She turned towards him and gasped at his position, one of her hands coming up to cover her mouth. "Serena, we have been through so much together. I remember meeting you during the Silver Millennium; I remember first meeting my Meatball Head, when she threw that horrible test paper, and it hit me; I remember meeting Sailor Moon and my Princess. I remember realizing that I had fallen in love with you so many years ago. Serena, since then, my love has grown; it has matured and become unbreakable and unbendable. Serena, I love you with all of my heart, and I would be the happiest man in the world, if you would say that you would marry me and spend the rest of our lives together…Serena, will you do me the greatest honor, and become my wife?"

Darien slipped the solitaire onto her finger and waited for her answer. She was nodding furiously, while fresh tears poured down her cheeks.

=END FLASHBACK=

Endymion thought that was his favorite memory. She was so happy! She wouldn't tell anyone that they had gotten engaged until the morning though, which was just fine with him, considering that they went back to his apartment for the night.

They were married shortly thereafter in a smallish wedding. There were only fifty people there. It was more than what Darien wanted and less than what Serena wanted, so in a way they both got what they wanted. At first it had been hard for Darien to realize that Serena remembered nothing of what she or he gone through. It took him so much effort not to tell her that they had already lived through this. This was a much better reality though, he got to stay with his dream girl, and his dream girl didn't have any god-like powers. She was a completely normal—besides the fact that she was Sailor Moon—human girl.

They had spent the most wonderful week of his life on their honeymoon on the island of Oahu. It was wonderful. He had almost let it slip there that they had been living for a while already. He had accidentally mentioned the picture of him pressing her up against the wall of her parent's house Frenching her.

She had given him the oddest look he had ever seen. She had ten proceeded to scream at him about going out with another girl, then telling her about it. She was so mad at him that she had nearly slapped him. He had to cover his tracks so that instead of it sounding like he had kissed someone else he rephrased it so that it sounded like a dream. She had still been mad at him, but he had kissed that away really easily. He had learned to keep his mouth shut about his "dreams" though.

=FLASHBACK=

"I remember that kiss in front of your parent's house." Darien had said. Instantly he knew his mistake.

"What kiss in front of my parent's house?" Serena squinted her eyes and looked at him oddly.

"It was only—" Darien tried.

"You kissed another girl in front of my house?! And you decided to tell me about it?!" Serena yelled at him. "What kind of man are you?"

Serena raised her hand to slap him. He grabbed it just before she could. "Serena, it was a dream—"

"So you dreamed about kissing another girl in front of my house? Wow, Darien, that's such a big difference." Serena started to cry. This was her honeymoon. They weren't supposed to be talking about this.

"Serena, I was kissing you in the dream." Darien grabbed her shoulders and gave her a little shake. She continued to cry.

"I-I don't be-believe you!" Serena wailed. Darien pulled her closer to him and kissed her in the same way they had been kissing in front of her parent's house. After her tears had stopped he had taken her to the bed and dropped her onto it, immediately going on top of her. The next day, Darien knew that he had convinced her.

=END FLASHBACK=

Endymion shook out of his memories and started to walk towards the throne room where he knew Serenity was waiting. They had made a deal that they would only do their duties for a couple hours each day that way they wouldn't always be calling in sick. Today Endymion had been planning a special party so that Serena would have a good birthday.

He walked down the hall, looking at all the pictures on the wall. They were of him and Serenity, their friends, and some of the more recent ones were with Rini. He smiled. His daughter's birth was one of the happier moments in his life. Serenity had been screaming her head off. She wouldn't even let him anywhere near her. She went through the pain all alone and gave him a beautiful healthy daughter.

Snapping out of his memories again, Darien walked into the throne room. His wife, his queen, looked so regal, so perfect sitting on her throne. Her hair had long since turned silver, but it still delights him as much as it used to. She was still his Meatball Head.

oOo

Serena smiled as she saw her husband come into the room. He was still so very handsome, even after one thousand years. She was still so in love with him.

"Hello, darling," Serenity spoke when Endymion was far enough into the room to hear her.

"Hello, my sweet. How has your day been?"

"Wonderful. I shall enjoy taking a rest though." Endymion nodded, and proceeded to take his place on his throne. Serenity got up and walked towards the gardens.

She always felt as if she had been through this. Maybe it was just déjà vu, which is what she always passed it off as, but lately…Lately, she had been getting some very weird powers. She tried to talk to her friends about it, but they just laughed at her. They thought she was insane. She knew that she could make things float though. A couple of times she had even shut the door when she was all the way across the room. Things were getting weirder and weirder and frankly, she was sick of pretending like nothing was happening when she knew it was.

Serenity smiled. _She would show them._ She walked out of the room and turned back to look at Darien. The scouts had apparently told him what she had told them yesterday. He looked scared. She waved, then moved her hand in front of her face.

The door shut to Serenity's laughter.

=====THE END=====

Well that's it! I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
